Missing Persons
by apocope
Summary: Months have passed since Kuvira's attack and Republic City is struggling to find its feet again. Called in to investigate a mysterious kidnapping, Detective Mako is on the case. But this rabbit hole goes deeper than he could have imagined.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Of course, I don't own any of this. This sandbox belongs to Bryke and Nickelodeon, but I'm having fun playing in it!_

 _Everything takes place a few months after Kuvira's defeat._

* * *

 **Prologue**

Korra relaxed in the early morning sun, at peace with the world, one of Asami's legs draped across her own. Bright, iridescent creatures played in the tall grasses of the spirit plains, wrestling and chasing one another, completely oblivious to their one-woman audience.

Korra smiled.

It was hard to tell how long they'd been in the spirit world, wandering, meeting spirits, living off the land. It was nice, and their biggest worries were simple ones. Where they were going to camp for the night, what they were going to eat, how they were going to spend their day.

 _Just a little longer_ , Korra thought. She didn't want to have to go back to the physical world yet, where every hour brought new problems and even the most simple decision seemed to have unexpected, long-reaching consequences. She felt she finally understood where Aang had been coming from in his reluctance in becoming the Avatar. Even as a little kid he must have realized the gravity of his position and been scared by it. It had taken Korra much longer to figure that out, as tied up in the freedom and joys of bending as she was.

Next to her, Asami stirred, pulled her leg off of Korra's lap and sat up.

"Morning." Korra gave her a peck on the cheek. "Tea?"

Asami rubbed some sleep from her eye. "Yes, please."

Korra got up and prepared breakfast, while Asami made a few notes in her journal. They ate in comfortable silence, packed up their camp and went on walking.

They were crossing a wide, grassy plain, though as the days went by, the terrain was slowly changing. The hills were getting steeper, and tall yellow trees were beginning to dot the landscape.

"What's that?" Asami asked as they crested a hill.

On the far side of the slope, a low pile of bricks, concrete and iron stretched for nearly a mile. Korra trotted down the hill to investigate. She came to a halt with a stomp that shook the ground. A chunk of concrete rose into the air.

"It's earth," Korra said once Asami had caught up. She made a claw-like twisting motion with one hand and a piece of reinforcing steel tore itself out of the concrete. "And metal."

"Yes, but where'd it come from?" Asami asked.

Korra shrugged. She'd accepted a while ago that sometimes things in the spirit world didn't make sense.

"It doesn't belong here," Asami said with authority.

"What makes you say that?"

"Look at it," Asami said, bending over to examine the pile of debris. "It's building materials. Man-made stuff."

"You don't think it came through the portal, do you?"

"Maybe. How far is it from here?"

Korra closed her eyes and thought about it. Distances were strange things in the spirit world, and how long it took to get from place to place depended more upon how you were feeling and what the stars were doing than how many miles stood between you and your destination.

The portal glowed like a beacon in Korra's mind. She could feel it always, was drawn towards it like north drew a compass needle. It was a little like tracking a person's spiritual energy, only easier because it had so much energy.

She opened her eyes again. "Not too far. Maybe a day or two."

"That's still pretty far. Way too far for it to have come out of the portal. We should ask around, see if anyone knows how this stuff got here."

Korra wrinkled her nose. "Or we could keep going. Don't you want to see that forest?" she asked, waving at the yellow hills.

Asami frowned back at her. "Aren't you curious?"

"Asami, that sounds like _work_. We're on vacation."

Asami hitched up her backpack. "We've been on vacation for weeks now and all we've done is wander around and look at stuff. Not that it hasn't been great, but I feel like I've learned everything I can from that. If we want to figure out how the spirit world works, we need to dig deeper. And look!" She waved at the pile of junk in front of them. "A mystery to solve."

Korra couldn't help but smile. "Okay, detective Sato. What do you propose we do?"

* * *

 **1**

"Some detective work," Hyen said to me as we got back into our cruiser to go over our notes in privacy. We had parked in the shade of a red brick apartment building, in a spot with a good view of all the cars and people coming and going in the busy neighborhood.

"What?" I said, genuinely confused. "All I said was it was probably a kidnapping."

"Mako, we got sent out here to investigate a kidnapping. The parents called to report a kidnapping and you and I are part of the missing persons department. _Everybody knows it's a kidnapping."_

I scrutinized my partner's face. Was this that sarcasm thing again, or was it seriousness? I couldn't always tell and Hyen's plain round face held no clues.

"What are you saying?"

Hyen sighed, arms folded. "I'm saying you shouldn't have said to Mr and Mrs Gu that little Ying was _probably kidnapped._ "

"But it—"

Hyen held up a finger. "Yes, she probably was. But since _everybody knows that already_ , you don't have to say it out loud."

I scowled. "Fine, O Great Social Guru. What should I have said?" Chief Bei Fong had made Hyen my partner not because she thought the two of us would work well together, but because she thought I might learn a few "social skills." Hyen, being a detective, had unfortunately figured this out and had since become dedicated to the cause. This meant lots of lectures like the one I was currently weathering.

"Nothing!" Hyen snapped. "Just that we're sorry for what happened and we'll do everything we can to get Ying back as soon as possible."

I wanted to point out that saying _"we would do everything we could"_ was not the same as _saying nothing_ , but even I realized this was pedantic and kept my mouth shut. I grunted and looked through my logbook.

The kidnapping had happened only a couple hours ago, in broad daylight in the middle of the morning. Mrs Gu and her daughter Ying had just gotten back from a morning walk and a trip to the corner store. During the thirty seconds it had taken Mrs Gu to locate her keys and unlock the outside door to their apartment building, her daughter had vanished. One moment Ying was there, the next she was gone.

Before her daughter's disappearance, nothing odd had happened. No strange men following them around, no menacing letters, not even any unusual sounds before the event.

At the moment, we were parked opposite the Gus' building, across from the last place Ying was seen. I caught Hyen staring up at the roof of the building, eyes narrowed in thought.

"You think they hoisted her up?" I asked.

"Maybe. Where else could they have dragged her in thirty seconds? They were in the middle of the block. There's no alleyways, no hidden corners the kidnapper could have pulled her into without Mom seeing. And she was adamant about there not being any cars."

I looked up and down the street. Hyen was right. All the buildings were butted up against one another, and there weren't even any shops the kidnapper could have ducked into on the Gus' side of the street—it was all apartments.

"She would have screamed," I said as Hyen dug out a pair of binoculars from under the seat.

"Mm." Hyen made an agreeing noise. "What do you think, then?"

"Maybe they went down. An earthbender could have pulled her underground faster than she could scream and any noise or shaking from the bending itself could be mistaken for traffic." I waved at the busy cross street.

"Good thought." We both sat in silence for a moment, thinking, before Hyen spoke again. "I wonder if this is related to the Balcony Snatcher."

The idea had occurred to me as well. The Balcony Snatcher was a serial kidnapper, mainly abducting children, mainly from high, inaccessible places like balconies or upper floor apartment windows, often in broad daylight.

"It's possible," I admitted, and checked my watch. We'd spent more time listening to Mrs Gu than I'd planned for. "Listen, I gotta do that eval for Choi. Can you drop me at headquarters and start interviewing the neighbors? I'll compare this with the rest of the Snatcher cases, see if this might be a match."

Hyen shook my hand. "Deal."

####

As a part of my police academy training, I had received some remedial firebending lessons to fill in the gaps of my very patchy education. The process had been long and often embarrassing as I struggled with the basic forms alongside ten-year-olds, but in the end it had been worth it. I wasn't a Master, but I was a better bender now than I ever could have hoped to be. This newfound ability meant it was now my job to assess the skills of new firebending recruits.

Joy.

I jogged through headquarters to a stone-paved courtyard out back, hoping I wasn't _too_ late. The other evaluator, Sergeant Kuri from Special Forces, was already there, along with Officer Choi, the new recruit's supervisor. The two of them nodded as I joined them under a multi-colored awning suspended off the back wall of the building.

"Sorry I'm late."

"It's fine," Choi said. "Yan, this is Junior Detective Mako. He and Officer Kuri will be observing your performance today. Are you ready?"

The new recruit, Yan, stood in the middle of the courtyard, sweating a little, either from the sun or from nerves. He was stocky, with wavy hair, dark skin and muddy yellow eyes that were almost brown.

Yan saluted. "Yes, sir!"

Choi stepped back and let Kuri take over.

"Show us the Basic Ten, please," she instructed.

Yan bowed and moved through the forms, blooms of yellow flame heating the already warm summer air. I shared a glance with Kuri, confirming that she saw what I saw. I jerked my head at the patio and Kuri gave me an approving nod.

I left my spot under the judges' awning, went to stand next to Yan, trying to put on a friendly face. The kid looked so nervous he might have thrown up right there. He couldn't have been more than sixteen.

I folded my arms across my chest, let my posture slump so I didn't seem quite so tall and imposing. "Lemme guess. Scrolls from the library and traveling circuses? Every circus has a firebender."

"And movers," the kid said, defensive.

"Don't trust movers. Most of the time they just use non-benders and special effects. Believe me."

He nodded again, but he looked disappointed. "Yes, Sifu Mako."

I was by no means a sifu, but I let it slide. I glanced at my fellow evaluator. "Kuri, what do you think? Does Master Akoza have room for another student?"

"I think so."

"Tell you what," I said to Yan. "Why don't I show you where Master Akoza's school is?"

"Yes, Sifu," Yan said. I took the new recruit by the shoulder and led him out of the training yard, catching an approving smile from Kuri.

I led Yan out to the street and we walked along in silence for a minute as I tried to decide on the best small talk to initiate. Where he was from? Family? Why he wanted to join the force?

It was the new recruit who thought of something first though.

"Is it true you know the Avatar?" Yan asked.

I wasn't totally surprised by the question. I'd made the papers a couple times for Avatar-related business, and there was always pro-bending. "Yes."

"Do you... Do you know where she is?"

"No," I said, giving him the same answer I gave everyone who asked. "I mean, yes, kind of. She's in the spirit world, somewhere."

"Do you know when she's coming back?"

I sighed. "I wish."

Yan let the topic go, seeming to understand that I didn't want to talk about it. We turned the corner and came into view of Master Akoza's school. It was huge and gaudy in the way only Fire Nation architecture could be. Curled roofs; columns, stairs and windows all dripping with statuary and ornaments. Even the banister on the front steps was carved to look like a dragon. A look of unease crossed Yan's face as we admired the building.

"You know, Akoza was my teacher too," I said. "Really, you're getting a great deal. She's a good teacher and the force is paying for the classes. I thought I was hot stuff, being a pro-bender and everything, but there was a lot I didn't know. Just do what she says and she will make you a better bender."

Yan still looked doubtful, but I decided there was nothing else I could say to change his mind.

####

I picked up a bowl of noodles on my way back to the office and settled down at my desk with a large box of file folders marked "BS-likely." It was, unfortunately, one of several such boxes gathering dust in a corner of the room. Most of the boxes had gone totally unattended for weeks or even months thanks to the chaos following Kuvira's attack, and now they were cold, beyond hopes of solving. This was one of the newer ones, being a post-attack box, but it was still cold.

I cleared some space on my desk, got out a pen and a stack of loose paper and began making notes, careful not to drip broth on the files. My partner found me hunched over my desk three hours later, still scribbling and crossing things out.

Hyen grabbed a chair and plopped down next to me. "Find anything?"

I grunted and finished what I was writing before looking up. Hyen looked tight-lipped and tired, like the fact-finding mission amongst the neighbors hadn't gone well.

"Yes... and no," I said. Hyen cocked an eyebrow at me and I went on to explain. "Ying Gu disappeared quickly and without signs of a struggle in broad daylight. She's small, probably under a hundred pounds, she's on the peninsula and comes from a family middle class family. This is exactly like all the other Snatcher victims, except number four, Shuju, who weighed one-twenty-five."

"You think she's number eleven?" Hyen asked.

I nodded.

"Anything odd about her?"

"Besides being on ground level, no. But she is the first victim to have possibly come in contact with another victim." I pulled out the file for victim number five from the box. "Fusha. Age six, from the same neighborhood. They might have gone to school together."

Hyen took the file and glanced it over with a resigned look. "We should talk with the teachers, interview her parents again, their friends..."

"Any luck with the Gus' neighbors?"

"No. Same story. Nobody saw anything. The guy from the print shop across the street thought he might have seen a man in a black cape around the time of the kidnapping, but he wasn't too sure. Struck me as an imaginative type anyway."

Hyen went on to describe the rest of the neighbor interviews, but I only listened with half an ear. Black cape. It sounded like something from a mover or a penny dreadful, but...

I dug out the file for victim number nine. Shiro. The boy's father had sworn he'd seen a dark shadow take off into the sky from their balcony, his son in tow.

"Dark cape," I said, and handed over the file.

"Well, shoot," Hyen said after skimming the file. "I'll talk to print shop guy again."

I nodded. Together we filled out a request to be put in charge of the case and made a plan on how to move forward.

####

To my surprise, Bolin was waiting for me when I got off work, sitting on a bench, twiddling his thumbs and staring intently at the dull abstract art on the lobby walls. He was more dressed up than usual, wearing the brown suit he reserved for weddings and holidays.

"Bolin? What are you doing here?"

"Mako!" Bolin jumped up, gave me a hug. "Guess what!"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. I just go hired by Frost Fire Films," he said, pretending to polish his nails against the front of his suit jacket.

I slapped him on the back. "That's great! But I thought you said you didn't want to be an actor anymore."

"I'm not! I'm doing special effects." He wiggled his fingers as though performing some magic spell.

For what felt like the first time all day, I smiled. "Good for you."

"And to celebrate, I'm taking my big bro out for a night on the town." He hooked his arm around mine and dragged us both out of the building. "My treat. What do you say?"

I winced. I'd been planning on reviewing the Snatcher cases some more at home, maybe catch the tail end of that night's pro-bending match, get up early to practice my forms and go for a run...

But Bolin was looking at me with puppy dog eyes and I couldn't say no.

"One drink."

Bolin grinned and not too long after, I found myself drinking something cold and foamy in a noisy bar, while Bolin sipped on a large glass full of frighteningly orange liquid with a pink umbrella in it.

"Mako, you have to try this." Bolin pushed the glass at me.

I pushed the glass back. "I'll pass. Tell me about the job."

Bolin took a sip of his orange potion and made a face that said I had just missed the opportunity of a lifetime. "It's a historical film, about the life of Avatar Kyoshi and her battle with Chin the Conqueror," he said in his best dramatic voice. "They had a heck of a time finding a girl tall enough to be Kyoshi _and_ who knows how to act. But of course she's a non-bender, so I'll be doing all the earthbending. And firebending."

I snorted into my foam and wiped my face. "Firebending?"

"Fake firebending. You know..." Bolin looked around the bar, leaned in close to whisper in my ear. " _Lava._ "

I wasn't sure how Bolin could make lava look like fire, but I didn't ask because after a drink or two, he might want to demonstrate. Inside.

"How'd you end up getting it?" I asked, and Bolin launched into a convoluted saga involving at least twenty different friends, acquaintances and contacts in the mover biz, none of whom I was familiar with. I listened patiently, smiling and congratulating him when he was finished. Bolin had had a rough time coming back to the city after leaving Kuvira's army. He'd refused to go back into acting, or pro-bending, and quickly got bored of any job that hired him purely for being an earthbender. Digging ditches and paving roads was not Bolin's thing.

"How about you? How's it going, being a bigshot detective?"

"It's... good," I was surprised to hear myself say. Sure, it was hard and frustrating and sometimes I had to do things I didn't enjoy, like writing press releases and holding stakeouts, but all the hard work, the research and investigating, it was so totally worth it when we _did_ solve a case.

"How's it working out with that new partner Bei Fong stuck you with? She's kinda cute, you know."

"I wouldn't call Bei Fong cute. She might hurt you if she finds out."

Bolin rolled his eyes. "Not Bei Fong. Hyen!"

"Oh." I frowned in confusion. "Bro, Hyen's a dude."

"But..." Bolin gestured with one hand to show how short Hyen was and then made wavy motions around his head and shoulders to indicate long hair. Bolin had met Hyen very briefly at a police fundraiser gala a month or so ago when I'd brought him along as my plus-one.

"He's Earth Kingdom," I said. "He wears it in a knot when he's on duty. And lots of dudes are short. You're short." This wasn't precisely true, but compared to me, most people were short.

"But Hyen's a girl's name!" Bolin shouted, ignoring the brotherly jab.

"Not always. Why do you care, anyway?"

"Because." He took a sip of his fruity drink. "How long's it been since you and Korra broke up?"

I shrugged. "A while."

"A _while_? Four years is a _while_? Have you seen anybody else since then?"

I scowled. "No. So what?"

"You gotta get back out there, bro."

"I'm out there, I socialize."

"Like what?"

"Sometimes I play cards with the guys from Homicide, and I spar at Akoza's on Sundays."

"And how many girls go to cards and sparring?"

"Plenty. Can we not talk about this anymore?"

"Okay, but-"

I shot him a grumpy look and Bolin clapped his hands to his mouth. "Okay. Shutting up."

We both took a drink and sat in silence for a minute. I was fine with us just quietly enjoying each others' company and the atmosphere of the bar, but I knew Bolin wouldn't be, so I struggled to think of a new topic of conversation. The easiest thing to do was ask how Opal was doing, but that was dangerously close to the topic we had just left, so I had to think of something else.

Fortunately, the bartender changed the station on the radio and turned up the volume, giving us something definitively happy to talk about: sports. It was the Hog Monkeys versus the Eel Hounds that night, and pretty soon the whole bar was listening to me and Bolin's semi-professional commentary and criticisms of the game in progress.

By the end of the game, Bolin was sloppily signing napkins and dribbling orange slush on his shoes, pink umbrellas decorating his button holes. I paid the tab and escorted a complaining Bolin outside.

"But, Mako! Fans!" He leaned on my shoulder and gestured back at the bar.

"Think about your bed, Bo." It was certainly what I was thinking about.

"Mm. Yeah," Bolin said dreamily. We walked along through the pleasant summer night, Bolin leaning on my shoulder while I carefully lit the way with a handful of flames to fill in the gaps between the street lights.

"Hey, Mako?"

"What?"

"Do mangos grow on trees or in the ground?"

"On trees, I think."

"Me too." There was a beat, and then Bolin said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you think Korra and Asami got together because Korra was a guy in her last life?"

"She was a girl in some of her lives before that."

Bolin nodded into my shoulder. "Yeah, but, I mean... It's not normal, right? I never..." Bolin cut himself off with a burp. I tensed for a second, worried he might be sick, but nothing happened. We kept on walking.

"What do you mean?" I prompted.

"I mean, I never heard of two girls being, you know... How would they even..." He waved his one free hand in a vaguely suggestive way.

"I dunno, bro." And then, because Bolin wasn't the only one with lowered inhibitions, I voiced a worry that had been eating at me for a while now. "You think it was something _I_ did?"

"Nah. Well, maybe. Did you hypnotize her or something? No, why would you do that? _Korra_ hypnotized Asami, that has to be it."

I snorted, not satisfied with Bolin's past-life/hypnosis idea. I would have poked holes the theory, but we were already at his building. I made sure he got inside and had a glass of water, then walked back to my own place, my brain trapped in a loop of thinking about things I didn't want to think about.

* * *

 _Yay, first chapter! If you haven't noticed, this is going to be a very Mako-centric story. I apologize for the lack of action, but there should be plenty coming up! If you have any comments, questions or criticisms, please leave a review._

 _Besos,_

 _Apocope_


	2. Chapter 2

2

I grunted as I let loose a burst of flame. The fireproof dummy in the police station gym bobbled on its spring, nearly hitting the ground behind it.

"Huah!" I shouted, and punched again.

"Do you really have to snort like that?" Hyen sat on the bench at the far end of the gym, eating a sandwich. For the time being, we were the only people there.

"Firebending comes from the breath," I explained. I centered myself and waited for the dummy to stop swinging while I focused on my drive. The desire to find out what had happened to the Snatcher victims.

"Breathing and grunting are two different things," Hyen said.

"What are you, my grandma?" I asked, moving onto my _Bik-Bo_ footwork practice now that I had warmed up.

"Just your partner who gets embarrassed for you whenever you start snorting like a hog-monkey in public."

I gave an exaggerated huff and finished my circle around the dummy, then paused and circled back the other way.

"Why are you here?" I asked. "You hate the gym."

Hyen wiped away some mayonnaise, following my progress in the mirror. "I'm not a fan of unnecessary exercise, I don't hate this room in particular. I came down because I wanted to know what you do here."

"Practice."

"I see," Hyen said, and went back to watching me in silence.

Once I was finished with my _Bik-Bo_ , I moved on to the Seven Stars form, focusing on keeping my chi in close and tight, my flames burning very bright and brief. It was a good indoor form, meant to surprise and stun an opponent in a darkened space. It wasn't a form I especially needed to practice, but it was showy and I had an audience.

From the sidelines, Hyen clapped. "Impressive."

I scowled at the praise and joined my partner on the bench, digging my own lunch out of my bag.

"So," Hyen said, "Bei Fong gave me two tickets to this show the Fire Nation Cultural Center is putting on. You know, be the friendly face to the community. You wanna come and tell me everything they're doing wrong?"

"Is it a firebending show, or like a play or what?" A bending show might have been fun, but some thousand year old play about princes and honor and predestined true love...

"I dunno. It's called the Solstice Celebration. You know anything about that?"

"Nope."

"Well, do you wanna come?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

"Flameo, hotman." Hyen stood and gave me a friendly punch on the arm. "I gotta run, but meet me in the office when you're done with those interviews, okay?"

"'Kay," I said around a mouthful of bean paste and watched Hyen practically skip out of the gym.

####

"Thank you for meeting with me, Kazuo," I said with a small bow as the father of one of the Snatcher victims opened the door to his home. It was a nice apartment, with family photos and tasteful calligraphy on the walls, vases of flowers on the tables and floor. Seeing the now-familiar face of Kazuo's son, Shiro, on the wall next to his brothers and sisters made something in my throat pinch painfully.

Kazuo bowed in return, Fire Nation style, and let me into the apartment. "Of course. Can I ask what happened to Detective Vani?"

"She was never officially in charge of Shiro's case. I know it's not something you want to hear, but the department's so overloaded we haven't had the resources to follow up on a lot of our cases, especially ones with so little evidence." Hyen had admonished me once for badmouthing the force in front of the public, but this was the truth. I wasn't going to _lie_ to the people I was supposed to be helping.

"I understand," Kazuo said, but his narrow face was hard, angry. "Much was destroyed after Kuvira's attack. We are luckier than some. But now you are here. Something has changed." It was a statement, not a question. He stared me in the eye, like he was testing me.

"There's been another victim." I opened my briefcase, took out a folder containing Ying Gu's photo and handed it to Kazuo. The older man took the photo and looked at it for a long moment.

"It is a shame. I do not recognize her. Perhaps one of my children would know her." He placed the photo on the table reverently, so it lined up square with the cracks between the boards.

"Maybe. Her family lives in Haikin neighborhood."

Kazuo nodded in understanding. "That is far from here."

"Right. But the reason I wanted to talk to you, sir, is because we may have found another witness." I took out another sheet of paper, this one a hand-drawn image with ink and pen. Earlier in the day, Hyen had brought the man from the print shop to headquarters, and with help from one of our sketch artists, brought the man's memory to light.

"Does this look familiar to you at all?" I asked. Kazuo pulled the drawing close, examined it. It was a drawing of a man from behind, with skinny legs, broad, hunched shoulders and a round head. His dark coat or cloak reached below his knees and was cut into three tails—the one in the middle rounded and long, the two on the sides shorter and pointed.

After a long few moments, Kazuo finally set down the picture, but continued to look at it for another minute more. I waited, my blood pressure rising.

Kazuo looked up. "I don't know."

I frowned, but contained my frustration. "You don't know?"

"No. My memory is not perfect, and now, with so many weeks gone by, I do not know for sure if I truly saw what I think I saw. This coat is distinctive, and I believe I would remember one like it. But a man can change his coat, or give it to someone else." He pushed the drawing back towards me. "Even if what I remember is correct, there are only two things I know. That the shadow was dark in color and it vanished from the balcony, just there." He gestured to the open balcony doors behind him. "More than that I cannot say."

I sighed and returned the drawing to its folder. I asked Kazuo a few more questions about his son, their family and the circumstances of the kidnapping, searching for similarities between Shiro and Ying, but they didn't seem to have any more in common than any two kids in the city chosen at random.

Kazuo's description of the coat as _distinctive_ did give me an idea however, and I made a note to speak with the tailors in the Haikin neighborhood.

With a feeling of tired disappointment, I stood to take my leave. Kazuo got to his feet and showed me to the door.

"Thank you, sir, for your cooperation." I bowed like the older man had done, Fire Nation style. "I promise, my partner and I are going to do everything we can to solve this case."

"Please do, Detective Mako. My son..." For the first time, Kazuo's composure slipped. His voice shook, just a little. "He is special. I know all parents say this, but of all my children, Shiro..."

"Special how?" I asked, hope rising in my chest again. Maybe some feature that would link him with the other victims?

"He is an old soul," Kazuo said. "The little wise one, we call him."

I nodded, trying to hide my disappointment.

"You will let us know when you find him," he said, hard and unquestioning.

I winced, heartsick at Kazuo's certainty and blind faith. Cases like this were rarely solved, and when they were, very, very few had happy endings. But in this instance, I couldn't bear telling him the truth.

"Of course."

Kazuo bowed to me again and I walked back to my bike, wondering what Bei Fong would say if I offered to transfer back to the beat.

####

I spent the rest of the day trying to get out of the funk the conversation with Kazuo had put me in. Burying myself in work just wasn't going to do it, so once my shift was finished, I rode over to Master Akoza's Firebending Academy.

Despite its gaudy exterior, I liked the school. They offered classes at night for working firebenders like myself, and there were always people around, practicing, sparring and taking advantage of the fact that the school had lots of open-air, fire-proof spaces that urban apartment buildings lacked.

I found an unused corner in one of the yards and began the Basic Ten. The familiar movements were comforting and loosened up all the tension and stress I'd been bottling in the whole day.

Aggression released, I went back indoors, dropped a couple yuans in the donation box and took a candle into the meditation room. Inside it was dark and warm and quiet, well isolated from the noisy classrooms and practice yards. Old-fashioned tapestries hung on the walls, and everything smelled like incense and smoke in a reassuring way. I sat on the floor, lit my candle and focused on my breathing.

On each inhale, the candle flame grew as I pulled more life and chi into myself and my fire. On each exhale, the flame dwindled as I relaxed and let go.

I'd never been much of one for meditating, but I had learned from Korra and Akoza it was the best way to deal with the problems I faced. By meditating, I could accept them, rather than running and hiding and allowing them to control me, or burning my way through them without thinking and letting myself get hurt in the process. Literally and figuratively.

My city was a mess, but I was doing what I could. Maybe I couldn't save Ying, or give Kazuo his son back, but I could learn what had happened and prevent it from happening again.


	3. Chapter 3

3

Thanks to Kuvira's attack, a lot of the recent improvements to the city's infrastructure had been destroyed. Even in the parts of town that escaped the power of her cannon, getting around could be difficult. In a not-uncharacteristic burst of forethought, Raiko had decided to prioritize public transit over making the streets satomobile friendly again. That didn't mean people had stopped driving though. So, to avoid the traffic and the bumpy roads, I was taking the train to the library.

I bought a newspaper off a kid at the train station outside headquarters and was currently alternating between staring out the window and reading the headlines.

Nothing exciting going on. More loans from the Fire Nation for the reconstruction effort, new fencing and increased security to go up around Raiko's spirit wilds quarantine, a music festival in Shijiao neighborhood next week. I flipped the page and a story caught my eye. _Power Plant Suicide Sparks Reform Review._

I found myself biting my lip as I read, scarcely breathing. One of the lightningbenders at the plant had snuffed it a few days ago, and from the rumors I'd heard floating around Akoza's, this kid was far from the first.

The article talked about the dangers and physical stresses of channeling large amounts of energy through the human body, the sadness of the incident and how the plant was working hard to recruit more benders so that _"no one individual will feel like they alone bear the weight of responsibility of keeping their fellow citizens warm and safe."_

I snorted and crumpled the paper in my scarred fingers, too incised to keep reading. _"Weight of responsibility?"_ It wasn't the responsibility or the physical stress that made lightning dangerous to those who bent it, it was the mental state lightning required.

Where regular firebending needed an emotional fuel, lightning required the opposite. A complete lack of emotion. Not apathy, per se, because you still needed the will to bend and guide the forces, but a lack of caring. It didn't matter what happened to you or whatever was on the receiving end of the power. The power was all that mattered.

Of course lightning itself _was_ dangerous for obvious reasons, but really, it was the empty, detached mental state it required that caused so much trouble. I wondered sometimes if so many lightningbenders ended up insane and dangerous because the mental state drove them crazy, or if it took a criminal mind to reach that state to begin with. Either way, I didn't like what it said about me.

Once the train reached my stop I took the crumpled paper and turned it into a little pile of ash on the sidewalk.

####

I looked up at the great, spindly arches of the Republic City Downtown Library and put aside my disgust at the power plant. The solstice thing was in a couple days, and I wanted to know what I'd signed up for and whether it would be worth it to back out now.

I slung my police coat over my arm and went inside, trying not to gawk. I'd only visited the Library once or twice before, and it was still as grand and intimidating as I remembered it, miraculously untouched by Kuvira's attack.

Off to the side of the main atrium, a chubby woman with glasses sat behind a desk marked "Information," writing something in a ledger.

I stopped just short of the desk and tried to get her attention. "Uh, hi."

The librarian looked up. "Is there something I can help you with, officer?" she asked, very stiff and formal.

"I'm looking for some information."

"What kind of information?" She was tense, like I'd accused her of a crime. A lot of people acted that way when I talked with them in uniform, even if they were totally innocent. I was used to it by now.

"Do you have any books about the..." I consulted a scrap of paper I'd written on earlier. "Fire Nation Summer Solstice Celebration?"

At that the librarian warmed up and in a matter of minutes I was on my way out again with not one book, but two: A travel guide on the Fire Nation (which included a section on holidays) and a book on men's fashion, so I would be prepared when I spoke with a local tailor about the "distinctive" coat seen by the Snatcher witness.

Around the back of the Library there was a nice open square, where a slow motion battle was going on between vines and tea shop tables, each vying for sunshine and real estate. A few jellyfish spirits floated here and there, looking more like works of art than living creatures.

I was about to sit down at the nearest table when I heard my name from across the square. I looked up to see Master Tenzin waving at me, motioning for me to come join him. I wavered for a second. I'd been looking forward to a pleasant, quiet lunch by myself before returning to the office, but Tenzin knew I'd seen him, and it would be rude not to say hi. I picked up my books and went over.

"Mako! What a pleasant surprise," Tenzin said with a smile. "How have you been?"

I sat. "I'm doing well. And you?" For a moment I wished Hyen was there, or Bolin, so I wouldn't have to do any of this small talk stuff.

"Good, good," Tenzin said.

"Good," I said.

There was a pause while both of us gazed absently around the square.

"What's that you have there?" Tenzin asked, indicating my books.

I glanced at the books and showed Tenzin the titles. "Couple things for work. You don't know anything about the Fire Nation Summer Solstice Celebration, do you?" I knew Tenzin was well-traveled. He might have heard of it.

Tenzin's face lit up. "The Solstice Celebration, of course! A beautiful event, with so much history. Why do you ask?"

I explained the situation and Tenzin launched into a detailed account of the trip he and his father had made to Ember Island to see the spectacle first hand. Music, parades, bending, fireworks... All in all it didn't sound too bad.

Before too long, a waitress came around with a cup of tea for Tenzin. I gave her my order and she went away again.

"So, what are you doing down here?" I asked, hoping this would be a productive line of conversation, productive meaning I could get Tenzin talking and I could just sit back and listen.

"Waiting for Jinora," Tenzin said. He curved one hand around his tea, causing the steam to rise up in artful spirals.

"Ah. What's she doing here?"

"Doing research into the nature of the spirit world." There was a note of pride in Tenzin's voice. "It's all beyond me."

I nodded. "Has she heard anything from Korra and Asami?"

The happiness and pride faded from Tenzin's face. "I'm afraid she hasn't seen or heard anything in weeks."

"Oh." I fiddled with my chopsticks. "That's too bad. But this whole disappearing act, it's kind of a common thing for Avatars, right?" Korra had done it before, and I knew Avatar Aang was famous—or infamous—for vanishing mysteriously.

"Perhaps," Tenzin said, eyebrows knitting together. Too late, I realized this might be a touchy subject for the son of the previous Avatar and mentor to the current one.

"That's not to say I don't miss her," I continued. "Her and Asami. But if something happened to them, we'd know, wouldn't we?" Either because they'd return, or they'd send Jinora a spirit magic message, or... I didn't like to think about it, but the Avatar would be reborn.

Tenzin smiled. "Yes, I like to think so. Jinora's connection with the spirits and with Korra is strong. And besides, she tells me time runs differently in the spirit world. So it could be that what is a few months for us is only weeks or days for them."

"Huh," I said, thinking back to my own trip into the spirit world. That had lasted only a few minutes, or what felt like a few minutes. "How would that work? What about Harmonic Convergence? If it happens every ten thousand years, wouldn't ten thousand years have to be the same on both sides?"

Tenzin opened his mouth as though to explain, then closed it again. "I hadn't thought of that." He stroked his beard thoughtfully for a minute, staring off into space.

"Maybe it's more... elastic," Tenzin suggested. He waved his hands as though stretching something between them. "Sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's shorter..."

"But in the end it evens out," I said, finishing the thought, glad to have solved the problem.

The waitress returned with my lunch and Tenzin sat in introspective silence for a few moments while I shoveled food into my face.

"How's Bolin doing?" Tenzin asked, and I told him about Bolin's successes at the film company. That got us talking about movers, which lasted until I had finished my lunch and Tenzin was on his second cup of tea.

I was about to excuse myself to return to work when Tenzin stood up. "Jinora!"

I turned in my seat to say hello to Jinora, but the words dried up in my mouth. She looked... old. Not old in that she was a teenager now and quickly becoming an adult, but she looked withered and frail. She was walking slow and careful, like every step ached, leaning just a little too much on her airbender's staff. She was thin, and as she got closer, I could see deep, dark bags under her eyes.

Tenzin went over to her and took the bag of books off her shoulder.

"Hi, Mako," she said, smiling and waving.

I cleared my throat and forced a smile, then stood and bowed. "Master Jinora." Then I bowed to Tenzin as well. "Master Tenzin. Thank you for the company. I would love to stay and chat, but I really have to go back to work."

Tenzin nodded. "Of course." He smiled. "Come visit us on Air Temple Island some time. You know you're always welcome."

I promised I would, and as quickly as I could without being rude, I picked up my books and walked back to the train station, lost in thought.

####

After work, I rode over to Bolin's apartment rather than go home. Bolin was of course more than happy to see me, and we spent some time catching up, talking about our jobs and in Bolin's case, his girlfriend.

"When was the last time you went to Air Temple Island?" I asked.

"Last time Opal was in town. A few days ago. Why?"

"Did you see Jinora while you were there?"

Bolin, who had been tilting back in his chair, leaned forward and let the front chair legs drop to the ground, a serious look on his face. "No. But, like, she's been super busy, looking for Korra and Asami in the spirit world. What's wrong? Did she get kidnapped?"

"No," I said, and Bolin visibly relaxed. "It's just, I saw her earlier today and she looked sick."

"Oh man," Bolin said, pulling his collar up so it covered his nose and mouth. "Better not be contagious. We're doing the island scene tomorrow and I gotta be on my A game."

I rolled my eyes. "Not like the sniffles. Like... serious."

Bolin let his collar slide off his nose, but didn't say anything.

"You remember when Unalaq trapped her in the spirit world? Like that, after she came back. She looked old."

"She's probably just spending too much time in the spirit world," Bolin said.

"Right. But why? Is it _that_ important that Korra and Asami come back? I mean, what's happening right now that the world needs the Avatar for? The Earth Kingdoms are mostly stable, the Fire Nation is playing friendly and there's no cosmic, world-ending events on the horizon."

Bolin opened his mouth, one finger held up to make a point, but whatever thought he had, he reconsidered it and dropped his finger. "I guess not."

"Like, it'd be _nice_ , but the world's doing okay."

"Right," Bolin said, frowning. "But what if there _is_ something? We don't know everything that's going on in the world. We didn't know about Harmonic Convergence or the Red Lotus."

I ran my hands through my hair. Bolin was right—we hadn't known about those things until the last minute, and neither had Korra. Maybe Jinora knew something we didn't, or maybe she just wanted to have Korra back _in case_ something happened.

But what? If I really wanted to find out, I would have to find time and an excuse to visit the island and talk with Jinora.

I blinked and realized Bolin was staring at me.

"What?"

"You got that look, bro."

"What look?"

"That _I'm a detective_ look," Bolin said in a deep, actor-y voice.

"I am a detective," I said, not rising to Bolin's teasing.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading!_


	4. Chapter 4

4

Hyen and I mingled with the growing crowd outside the Fire Nation Cultural Center. It was still morning, and the sun was already blistering hot. We both had our coats draped over our arms, sweating and miserable. All around us, people in revealing red outfits milled around the square, talking, dancing to loud, brassy music, and investigating the stalls that had popped up overnight. I spotted a number of stands selling fireworks I was fairly certain the city had outlawed, but seeing as we were on goodwill duty, I decided against writing them up.

"Why're _you_ sweating?" Hyen asked, taking a couple shuffling steps to stand in my shadow. "I thought firebenders were heat-proof."

"We're not." I wiped my forehead, wondering if people thought waterbenders were immune to drowning. "How much longer?"

Hyen glanced at the Cultural Center clocktower. "Thirty minutes. Let's go inside."

I checked my wallet for my ticket and followed Hyen up the ornate steps and into the Cultural Center building. Inside, the building reminded me of Akoza's school—huge and fancy, though not nearly as smoky. There were tapestries on the walls, and just about everything that could be decorated was.

Following the signs and the general flow of the crowd, we wound our way through the building and to the amphitheater.

The amphitheater was a massive stone construction, perfectly round with huge red awnings shading the seats. In the middle of the stage a yellow gem the size of a man's fist sat on a pedestal, but besides that it was empty. Hyen found our seats, five or six rows up, and I went back to buy us both a lemon ice from a vendor just outside the amphitheater entrance.

"This was a good idea," Hyen said, taking the offered drink. I nodded and sat. It was much more pleasant in here than outside or in the Center itself, but there was still a hot, sticky feeling to the air, kind of like just before a thunderstorm.

"Yeah," I said. "Better here than the office." I might have been hot and uncomfortable here, but it would have been the same at headquarters, and at least here I wasn't expected to get any work done. In fact, pretty soon I was going to get to watch a show and take my mind off the heat.

Next to me, Hyen got to chatting with the couple in the next row up and I occupied myself by checking the exits and scanning the crowd for suspicious behavior.

After a few minutes, a bare-chested man with metal bracers on his arms stepped onto the stage, the cord of a microphone trailing behind him. Bit by bit, the audience went quiet. The microphone man stopped short of the center of the stage and addressed the crowd, turning slowly on the spot. Speakers around the amphitheater repeated his words, all half a second off from one another, turning the man's voice into a cacophony.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your presence here today. This show is dedicated to the spirits of fire, of life and of light. I ask you now to call on the great spirits with me, that they may hear our voices and feel our love for them. Call for them with me! Paavir! Kivos! Raava!"

The crowd shouted out the names of the spirits, repeating after the man with the microphone while drums boomed from some hidden spot. Hyen joined in the cheering after the first round, but I kept my mouth shut, unable to put a finger on exactly why this was making me feel uncomfortable.

Just as the cheering reached a point of hoarseness, the microphone man made a slashing motion with his arms and the drums and the crowd went silent.

"Paavir!"

A gong struck and a massive bloom of orange flames erupted from the right side of the stage. The flames swirled for a moment and dissipated, revealing a man dressed all in tight black clothes, wearing a red mask adorned with horns and many, many white, pointed teeth. I supposed he was meant to be the spirit of fire.

"Kivos!"

The gong struck again and this time yellow flames burst from the left side of the stage. The man pretending to be the spirit of life had on green robes with a yellow mask shaped like the head of a cat-deer.

"Raava!"

The gong struck a third time and I gasped as blue-white flames filled my vision and a wave of heat rushed over me. Out of instinct I raised my arms to defend, but already the fire was gone. In its place stood a woman wearing a firebending master's gi, paper white with a pattern of blue stripes. Her face was covered by a white, diamond-shaped mask, blank except for a single blue eye in the center.

I spent a second trying to figure out how the performers had gotten onto the stage—trap doors?—but a moment later the thought was washed away as the drums started up again. The three benders dressed as spirits began dancing around the stage as the shirtless man narrated.

"Paavir fills the world with heat and power! He keeps our houses warm and makes us strong! Kivos provides the spark that burns in all living things and gives us will and passion! Raava is the source of all that is good! She lights our way and guides us into the glorious future!"

Yellow, orange and blue-white light bloomed and swirled on the stage and I found myself sweating again under my uniform, but I was too entranced to care. As the narrator explained the roles of the great spirits, the bursts of fire became continuous streams, morphing into solid-looking shapes with teeth and eyes and claws. Serpents, fish, hawks, dragons... fiery creatures paraded around the stage in time with the beating drums.

A fox made of yellow fire tethered to the man in the cat-deer mask flew over my head, close enough to make me flinch. I blinked and from the corner of my eye I caught sight of Hyen staring at the scene below, mouth open in awe.

The burning creatures continued their dance, faster and faster, and just when I was sure the benders were about to collapse from exhaustion, a woman screamed, her sharp voice carrying over the sound of the narrator, the drums and the roaring flames. For a split second I thought this was part of the act, but then the scream continued and the narrator stopped his monologue. In an instant, I was on my feet, trying to discern the source of the scream.

"There!" I shouted, pointing at a woman down in the first row, a fiery orange snake coiling around her. Hyen vaulted over the rows of seats between us and the woman, police coat in hand. I stayed where I was, placed a foot on the seat in front of me to steady myself and spread my arms wide in an effort to dissipate the flames that encircled the woman. Sparks flickered at my fingertips, but my bending had no effect on the fiery snake.

No good.

I breathed and tried again, just as Hyen reached the woman and tried to wrap the coat around her to smother the flames. Again my bending didn't work and I shouted in frustration. I snatched my own coat and launched myself over the heads of the audience on a burst of solstice-powered flames to land beside Hyen. The woman was on her knees, screaming as the fire writhed around her. An awful smell of cooking meat and burnt hair filled the air.

I beat at the flames with my coat as Hyen did the same, terrified I might be hurting her more than helping. A few seconds later the flames were gone, though the poor woman was still crying and screaming in pain.

"Get her out of here!" I shouted as Hyen pulled the woman to her feet. My partner shouted something in response, but I missed the words as I took in the scene around us. It was chaos.

The drums had stopped, replaced by screams and howling wind. People were running for the exits, tripping over seats and each other, trying desperately to get away from the fiery creatures that tore through them like burning brands through paper. The stage had become an inferno and I had the impression I was standing on the surface of the sun itself.

"Cover me!" Hyen shouted, pulling me back into reality.

"Go!" I shouted back and blasted myself down onto the stage. I landed in my horse stance, feet wide and knees bent for stability as I brought a wall of flame up in front of me to create a barrier between the fleeing audience and the raging inferno.

Heat and power coursed through me and out of me, fueled by my drive to protect Hyen and the audience and my fear of the fiery creatures that weren't acting how they should. Why hadn't my bending worked on the snake? Where were the masked performers? I _had_ to know, but I was trapped. My wall of fire blocked my view of the stage and I couldn't move until I was sure Hyen and the audience were safe or else my wall would collapse and the creatures would attack.

An instant later my worries about my bending and the performers were swept away as one of the creatures tore through the wall, dissipating the flames and forcing its way through like a firebender would. The creature was man-shaped, but far too tall and thin, made of flames with something dark and smoldering inside its chest.

The creature's mouth opened and to my horror it spoke to me in a voice like crackling flames and whistling wind, strangely high pitched for its size.

"You burn bright, little bender, but brightness blinds-"

A fireball smashed into the creature's head, deforming it and making it stumble back. I looked towards where the blast had come from, moving only my eyes. A woman in a charred fancy dress stood on the stands, fist still extended. She drew back her arm and fired again, forcing the creature back into my wall.

I lowered my arms and let the wall put itself out as the woman jumped from the stands and blasted the creature a third time while still in the air. I added my fire to hers, pushing the creature back, and raised the wall again, arms shaking from the effort.

"Get out of here!" I shouted. The woman was clearly an audience member, part of the general public, which made me responsible for her safety.

Above me something moved and I looked up to see a wooden rafter barreling towards me, trailing flames and red cloth. Something hit me in the side and a moment later the wooden beam crashed next to me and the firebender woman who had knocked me out of the way. I coughed and tried to stand, but the wind was knocked out of me and the air by now was so hot it was almost unbreathable.

The firebender woman got to her feet before I did and was fighting again, trying to hold back a group of burning spider-flies, each of them bigger than she was. She didn't see the threat just behind her, a creature made of smoke more than flames. It rose up through the stone floor, shapeless and semi-opaque, like liquid shadow.

I shouted something incoherent and thrust a fist towards the smoke creature, but I didn't have the breath to put any force into my fire. The woman turned just as the shadowy shape reached her, enveloping her in darkness.

I gasped, finding my breath. "No!" I pushed myself to my feet and flung myself after the woman and the shadow as they both melted back into the stage. I scrabbled on my hands and knees, searching for a trapdoor, fingers scraped raw on the rough stone.

"Where? How-?"

A flaming boarcupine rammed into me, burning the exposed skin on the side of my face and tossing me into the air. For the briefest of moments I thought I was back on the Pro-bending platform, getting knocked into the drink.

I oriented myself with a burst of flame so I was facing feet down and landed in a crouch. The boarcupine squealed, charged at me. I somersaulted out of the way and brought my fists around to blast the creature back, only to have to spin and fire again at a hawk the size of an ostrich-horse that swooped down at me.

There were too many of them. It was too hot and the whole place was burning, falling down around me. I coughed, blasted back another fiery creature and took a step back, trying to figure out where I could run to, knowing I didn't have the energy left to boost myself back up into the stands.

The creatures kept on coming, pushing me until I was back against the wall. Desperate, I tried to find that empty place within myself, that place without fear or caring as I ducked and weaved, doing what I could to avoid the creatures. Maybe lightning could do to them what fire couldn't.

A sharp sound got my attention—a whistle—and I looked up. Hyen was in the stands above me, hanging onto the railing, one hand extended. I took one last look at the chaos in front of me and put every last drop of fear and drive into my jump. I blasted myself off the stage and grabbed onto Hyen's hand as my partner directed my momentum up and over the railing and into the burning stands.

"C'mon!"

Hyen grabbed me again by the fabric of my uniform and pulled me up the stairs and towards an emergency exit. Even as I was being pulled, I looked back at the amphitheater, searching for the firebending woman who had saved my life.

Hyen dragged me through the door and then we were outside again, the blue sky filled with black smoke. Sirens wailed and I found myself being herded towards a truck with a big crescent and waves symbol on it—an emergency healer's vehicle.

"No! I gotta go back!" I shouted as Hyen and a medic forced me into the back of the truck. "I gotta go," I said again as the medic sliced my ruined uniform off me and started smearing numbing ointment on my burns. Only then did I realize I'd been hurt at all, that every breath stung, that I was bruised and tired and bloodied.

"You did good, buddy," Hyen said, patting my head. "You did good."


	5. Chapter 5

5

After an intensive healing session for a serious burn on my face, I was set free from the hospital with a bottle of ointment, a bandage wrapped around my head, and a written agreement that I would return every day that week for further healing.

Hyen met me in front of the hospital to give me a ride home.

"Feeling okay?" Hyen asked as I let myself into the satomobile.

I rubbed at the bandage. "Yeah. You?"

"Little singed," Hyen said, holding up an arm to show off a matching bandage. "Where am I taking you?"

Although we had spent some time together outside work, Hyen had never been to my apartment. I knew he was asking what my address was, but I didn't want to go home just yet.

"The office."

Hyen gave me a stern look. "No."

I returned the glare.

Hyen sighed. "Please say it's where you left your motorcycle."

I shook my head. My bike was parked in the lot underneath my apartment building. "I wanna know what happened. See if everybody got out okay."

"I can find out for you," Hyen said as we crossed an intersection.

"Sure. I just..." I took a breath. "I saw some things back there I don't know what to make of. I got some thoughts, but I wanted to run them by you, see what you think."

Hyen glanced at me and hesitated a second before responding. "Bei Fong's not gonna be happy with me if I let you go back to work like this."

"Seriously?" She'd let me come back to work long before my arm had fully healed, and this was a way less debilitating injury. It just _looked_ bad thanks to the bandage on my face.

"She doesn't want you to burn yourself out," Hyen said. "Pun intended."

I scowled. It made sense Bei Fong wanted me to rest, but how _could_ I rest without knowing what had happened? Besides, I needed to discuss what I had seen before the memory dulled.

"Tell you what," Hyen said. "We'll swing by the office, I'll grab the files and we'll go back to this teashop I know. They have a phone and I'll get Vani or somebody to keep us in the loop in regards to the search and rescue. Sound good?"

I agreed, and about an hour later the I found myself ensconced in the back corner of a run of the mill teashop with well-graffiti'd wooden tables and sticky floors. I had the Balcony Snatcher files open in front of me, and was spinning a pen impatiently between my fingers while I waited for Hyen to get off the phone. A pot of tea sat on the table, too hot to drink.

"Looks like they put the fire out," Hyen said, sliding into the booth opposite me. "No word on that woman we helped though. Vani said she'd call the hospital again in a little while. What was it you wanted to talk about?"

I ran my fingers through the part of my hair that wasn't hidden under gauze, not sure where to start. Hyen waited patiently, not interrupting while I gathered my thoughts.

"I don't think those things were fire," I said.

"What, the creatures? They looked an awful lot like fire to me."

"I think they were spirits. Not at first, but after a certain point, that fancy bending turned into the real deal. One of them spoke to me."

Hyen gave me a look like I was crazy.

"I'm not crazy."

"Yeah, _I_ know that." He reached over and poured us both a cup of tea, leaving the implication that I _sounded_ crazy hanging in the air. "But you're right. I didn't hear anything _talk_ to me, but what I saw wasn't normal. The switch must have happened when the sun hit the sunstone. Solstice magic."

I took my cup of tea. "Maybe," I said, wondering if that was really how it worked. If the sun hitting a rock at the right time with the right people doing the right bending forms and saying the right words was what it took to summon spirits into the physical world. It seemed like it should, but at the same time it really didn't. It was too arbitrary.

"Maybe?" Hyen prompted.

I blinked. "I'm just wondering, why now? The ticket said this was the twelfth annual Solstice thing, so this wasn't the first time they've done _that_ show _there_ on _that_ day. Did they summon spirits like that every year? Why did they lose control this time?"

"Hmm." Hyen drummed the table thoughtfully for a moment. "It can't be because of Harmonic Convergence. That was a few years ago and this is the first time they burned down the Cultural Center. Maybe the new spirit portal has something to do with it? Or maybe they found some extra spiritual benders for the show this time. I mean, that white fire was something else."

I shrugged. "Some firebenders can do different colors. It has something to do with using non-standard emotions to fuel..." I trailed off and cleared my throat, seeing a glazed look in Hyen's eye.

"Uh-huh." Hyen took a sip of the tea. I followed suit and nearly gagged, surprised by the sweetness.

"So, what does this have to do with the Snatcher?" Hyen asked.

For an answer, I pulled out the drawing I had shown Kazuo earlier in the week, black ink outlining an amorphous, shadowy shape. "Does this really look like a human to you?"

"You think the Snatcher is a spirit?" Hyen asked, sounding wary.

I shook my head. "I know it is. I saw it come up out of the floor and swallow a woman whole right in front of me."

"A woman."

"Yeah. A firebender from the audience. Look. I know he—it—has mostly gone after kids so far, but what if it just wasn't strong enough to take an adult? Maybe it got a boost from the solstice."

"Maybe," Hyen said with a frown. "You know we're gonna need more evidence if we want to go to Bei Fong with this. She's not going to believe you without anything to back it up."

"I know." Even before making detective, I had heard the " _it was spirits_ " excuse way too many times. Yes, ever since the local portal had opened up the claim was a lot more plausible, but even now, it was so hard to prove that no one on the force liked to hear it and they tended to be extra cautious and suspicious when they did. I was supremely relieved to hear Hyen wasn't disregarding the spirit theory out of hand.

"Right," Hyen said, leaning forward, elbows on the table. "The real question is _why_ a spirit would go after these people."

I took a sip of my sweet tea. "I don't know, but I know someone who might have an idea."

####

I watched as a strand of hair came free from Hyen's topknot and whipped in the wind. Hyen hadn't noticed yet, fully absorbed in the view and a cigarette. The two of us had hired a water taxi and were now speeding across the bay, headed towards Air Temple Island and a meeting with Master Tenzin.

The boat slipped under the shadow of the island and dropped into a lower gear as we approached the dock. Our own wake caught up with us and the boat rocked and rolled for a stretch before we landed at the dock with a bump.

"Is it true you lived here for a while?" Hyen asked as one of the Air Acolytes led us up to the temple.

"Yeah. Bo, Korra, Asami and me, we all stayed here for a while back when Amon was tearing up the city."

Hyen tsked. "Rough times. I was on the beat back then, and man. For every incident you read about in the paper, there were fifty more we had to deal with."

"You know, I heard something about them on the radio the other day. They're still around apparently, and their new thing is they want to ban bending in the city. It's ridiculous."

Hyen laughed. "Exactly! I mean, how can you fix potholes without earthbending? And forget about having hospitals or electricity."

I winced a little at the mention of electricity, but Hyen was half a step ahead and didn't notice.

"Now, I could see banning firebending in a flour mill," Hyen continued, "or earthbending inside stone buildings, but all bending in the whole city? Not even talking about the loss of services, can you imagine trying to enforce something like that?"

The diatribe continued all the way until we reached the top of the temple steps and Hyen stopped short. "Now that's architecture."

I nodded and we admired the temple for a moment, like so many wedding cakes stacked on top of one another. Then the Air Acolyte reminded us we had a meeting to attend and took us across the courtyard, through the temple and onto a sunny terrace.

I knew this terrace well. Asami and I had visited this particular spot pretty frequently during our stay at the temple, since it was fairly secluded and roughly equidistant from the men's and women's dormitories. The memory made me self-conscious, and I hoped Tenzin didn't know about our activities.

"Master Tenzin will be with you shortly," the Acolyte said. "Would either of you care for a bite to eat or something to drink?"

We respectfully declined and sat down at a picnic table and to go over our questions for Tenzin while we waited.

"You think he'll be able to help?" Hyen asked.

"If he can't, he has to know someone who can," I said. I knew Tenzin had some spiritual shortcomings, but he was still very knowledgeable on the subject. I was half hoping we could stump him and see if we could drag Jinora into the conversation, but I wasn't going to force it.

Tenzin arrived a short while later with a big smile on his face. "Mako! It's nice to see you again so soon." He shook my hand and gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder. "How's the burn doing?"

I rubbed at the bandage on my face, half the size of the first one. "Fine. The healer said it'll be better in a week or so."

"Glad to hear it," Tenzin said. He turned to Hyen. "And you must be Detective Hyen. It is an honor to meet you." He shook Hyen's hand as well and joined us at the table.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with us," Hyen said.

"Of course. Mako told me about the missing children and the dark spirit." He shook his head, serious and sad. "I only hope I can help."

Once the formalities were out of the way, I launched into our list of questions. "I guess our first question is if that's really how you summon spirits. By having the right stuff and the right chants in the right place at the right time," I said.

Tenzin stroked his beard for a moment before answering. "You can't really summon spirits. They're autonomous beings, not satomobiles, where you turn the key and they mechanically do your bidding. The most you can do is ask nicely and hope.

"But remember. For spirits to cross into our world—in the traditional sense, that is, without the portals—they need a place where the boundary between our worlds is thin, like it is on the Solstice, or when other celestial bodies align and amass spiritual energy."

I nodded. "What would happen if you got a bunch of spiritual people together? Would that help to thin the world boundary?" Maybe having three powerful benders together would do the trick.

Tenzin tapped his fingers together, thinking. "Not exactly. If that was true, we would have spirits crossing over every time anyone gathered a big enough crowd, since everyone has some spiritual energy."

"But that doesn't happen," I said. If that had been the case, then places like theaters and sports arenas would get overrun with spirits every time an event happened.

"Precisely. Not because there's not enough spiritual energy, but because it is too chaotic. That's why the solstice is so powerful. The sun is a huge, single source of spiritual energy and when it aligns with the earth the right way it washes away a lot of the barrier."

I nodded along as Tenzin continued to explain, glad Hyen was taking notes, because I certainly wasn't following.

When Tenzin finally paused to breathe, I took the opportunity to ask another of the questions from our list. "Do you think someone might be controlling the spirit, like Unalaq did?"

Tenzin laced his fingers together on the tabletop, taking his time before answering my question. "When I say spirits are autonomous and not like machines, that is not to say they are like humans. Every spirit is a spirit _of_ something. A place or a thing or a more general concept. I believe Unalaq overwrote part of the spirits' beings with his own spiritual energy to transform them into the kind of entities that might _want_ to do his bidding. But even that ability is vanishingly rare. To have two such people in a single lifetime would be astonishing."

I mulled this over. I had been hoping a spirit-controlling mastermind was the one behind all this, since I could arrest a rogue waterbender, but Tenzin was making it sound unlikely, if only from a statistical standpoint.

Next to me, Hyen set down the pen and spoke up. "So, assuming there's _not_ a human mastermind, why would a spirit want to kidnap children?"

Tenzin cleared his throat. "Well, it would depend on the type of spirit. It could be a spirit of loneliness, or a spirit of collection, or a spirit of motherhood. Before you leave, remind me to lend you my copy of _The Taxonomy of Spirits._ "

I nodded, checked to see that Hyen had written down the title, and moved on to our next question. "What about the victims? Is there a certain kind of person a spirit might go after?"

To my surprise, Tenzin had a definitive answer. "Yes. If this spirit really is kidnapping people, it would be naturally attracted to those with strong spiritual energies." As he said it, the lines in his face got deeper, his color draining away.

I put a hand to my mouth, guessing what Tenzin must have been thinking. Jinora.

"How can you tell if a person has that energy?" Hyen asked. I knew he wasn't oblivious to Tenzin's pain, just ignorant to what was causing it.

"Lots of ways," Tenzin said. He glanced over his shoulder back towards the temple and cleared his throat. "They might be able to communicate easily with the spirits, or cross into the spirit world no matter the day or place, or they might simply be an above average bender."

I was sure Tenzin knew more about the subject than he was letting on at the moment, but I didn't press for more details, since he clearly wanted to go check on his daughter. Rather than move onto our next question, I stayed quiet and leaned back slightly in my chair. Hyen seemed to catch what I was doing, and stood, shuffling the papers in an official way.

"Master Tenzin, I can't thank you enough. I'm sorry to have to wrap things up, but we've got a boat waiting and I have to get back to the office. Would you mind telling me how to get to the washroom while you and Detective Mako pick up that book you mentioned?"

With that not so subtle piece of social maneuvering, I found myself walking alone with Tenzin to retrieve the book from Tenzin's study.

"How's Jinora doing?" I asked once Hyen was out of earshot.

Tenzin sighed. "She refuses to stop her search for the Avatar. Pema and I have convinced her to scale back her efforts so she can study the spirit world more, but it's taking a great toll on her."

"I'm sorry," I said, considering how to phrase my next question so it didn't seem like I was taking either Tenzin's or Jinora's side in the issue. "Can I ask why she's doing it?"

"Just a feeling that the world is out of balance." There was something so sad in Tenzin's voice, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help, but didn't know how.

We picked up the book from Tenzin's study and I walked back down to the dock. I would have to come back another day and talk with Jinora myself.

####

I put my head on my desk and groaned. It had been a few days since our meeting with Tenzin and in that time I had spent just about every waking hour trying to figure out what kind of spirit or spirits might kidnap people, and how to tell if a person had strong spiritual energy. Tenzin had given me some ideas, but how was I supposed to judge those things? Someone might have strong spiritual energy, but if they never even thought of trying to enter the spirit world, or communicate with spirits, I had no way of detecting that energy.

Hyen at the moment was out speaking with an alleged aura reader for more insight into spiritual energies, while I dredged through _The Taxonomy of Spirits_ yet again for more potential suspects. Not that either of us even knew what to do after I had narrowed down the list. We were stumped on how one was supposed to even arrest a spirit. Did they count as United Republic citizens, or would they be foreign ex-pats? Or illegal immigrants, since they certainly wouldn't have passports or identification papers.

"Mako! What are you doing?"

I bolted upright, going from puddle on the desk to full salute in the blink of an eye under the stony gaze of Lin Bei Fong.

"Sorry, Chief!"

"Where's Hyen? You two promised me an update on the Snatcher case yesterday."

I lowered my arm and braced myself against the desk. "Sorry, Chief. It's just..." I trailed off, unable to divide my attention between talking and surreptitiously burying _The Taxonomy of Spirits_ under a pile of papers so Bei Fong couldn't see the incriminating illustrations.

"If you need more medical leave, I'm happy to give it. I want you at one hundred percent, Mako." Bei Fong sighed. "I know I haven't been the best example on that front, but-"

"It's okay," I said, not prepared to deal with Bei Fong's compassionate side in front of the rest of the department. I didn't want their teasing, or her pity. "Really, Chief. We'll have it to you by the end of the day."

Bei Fong folded her arms and snorted. "You better."

####

A few hours later, I found myself facing down the full brunt of Chief Bei Fong's disappointment. Hyen and I sat in her office in silence while she stared at our report, rubbing her temples.

"Spirits," she said, and I wasn't sure if she meant it as a curse or a confirmation. "You realize the headache this is going to give me?"

Neither of us responded, not wanting to incur the wrath of a Bei Fong.

She scowled at us. "You're sure about this."

"Ma'am," Hyen said, "we wouldn't have given you the report if we weren't sure. Between Mako's eyewitness account and the expert testimonies, it's the best fit for the case. It's not even unprecedented. Before the Raiko established the spirit wilds quarantine, Special Forces caught dozens of spirits killing and kidnapping people."

"I read the report, Hyen. You made a good case. The headache is what comes next. We have to move forward on this before it goes public. Mako, I want you to talk to Sergeant Kuri from Special Forces and get a team together. Hyen, update the families, but keep them quiet, and find someone to go over the other unsolved cases. If you two are right, we might have more victims than we thought. Oh, and get your butts to the gym. I need you in top shape."

"What for?" Hyen asked, not looking too pleased.

"If you want to talk with spirits, you'll have to go into the quarantine."

* * *

 _AN: I hope the timeline of events is clear here:_

 _Kuvira attacks, portal opens  
Mako makes detective, Korra & Asami leave  
Raiko establishes the spirit wilds quarantine to protect people from malevolent spirits_


	6. Chapter 6

6

While we waited for permission from Raiko to enter the quarantine zone, Hyen and I kept busy. When we weren't interviewing the victims' families, or searching for reasons a spirit might target someone, we went through the other unsolved cases, searching for other potential Snatcher victims, and trained with our new team members from Special Forces.

Special Forces were an interesting bunch. The vast majority of them were benders, and talented ones at that. Those who weren't had other areas of expertise, like hand-to-hand combat, wilderness survival, aviation, and so on. With Kuri's help and a letter of authorization from Bei Fong, I picked two people for the mission: a metalbender called Chungsoo and a non-bender named Kung.

Chungsoo was a dark-skinned man with a flat face and stringy mustache that made him look like a catfish. A quiet guy, but good at his job. Together, he and I were the muscle, in case any dark spirits attacked.

Kung was an imperious woman, with a cloud of fluffy black hair that refused to stay put under her Special Forces helmet. Her specializations were in animal husbandry and life sciences. Hopefully she would be able to identify what was native and what was spirit inside the quarantine, while her molehound sniffed out anything that might have belonged to the victims.

Meanwhile, it was Hyen's job to be the voice of the group when we needed to speak with any spirits directly, and to record everything we saw and heard. Part of the deal Bei Fong had made with Raiko was the promise to document the status of the man-made things inside the wilds and generally take stock of what was going on.

It was late in the day, a week and a half after turning in the report to Bei Fong when we got the call. Raiko had granted us permission to enter the quarantine.

####

The next day, not too long after sunrise, I found myself in a police van, trundling through a gate in the chainlink fence that marked the outer boundary of the quarantine zone, or the QZ, as Special Forces liked to call it. They were the ones who patrolled the border between the wilds and the city, keeping naive and foolhardy humans out just as much as they kept malicious spirits in.

Even outside the fence, the spirit vines here were denser and thicker than anywhere else in the city, and I knew it had been a point of major contention on where exactly to draw the line. The QZ spanned maybe a hundred square blocks, stretching from the North Shore Industrial Zone and the Silk Road Bridge, all the way to 22nd Street, the main drag that bisected the peninsula. This meant much of what had once been downtown was now part of the quarantine, and the ruins of skyscrapers poked through the vines like broken teeth. Even the air smelled different, like dirt and decay. In the middle of it all, the spirit portal lanced into the sky, shining bright and golden in the sunshine, spirits circling it like schools of fish.

The van came to a stop outside a second gate and I got out, broken asphalt crunching under my shoes. Hyen, Chungsoo and Kung followed behind, along with the emergency rescue team Kuri had assigned us. The second anything went awry, the rescue team would rush in to extract us and call for more backup from headquarters. I was glad for the support, but hoped it wouldn't be necessary.

We spent some time setting up and testing the radios and making sure all our equipment was in working order before the four of us passed through the gate. Kung and her molehound took the lead, following the ruins of Miagawa Boulevard down towards the waterfront and the portal. Hyen and I followed behind, with Chungsoo, barefoot and silent, bringing up the rear.

It was quiet in the quarantine, away from the traffic and construction of the city, weirdly peaceful. Trees had sprouted up between the vines and the broken buildings, filtering the sunshine into shafts of green and gold, and somewhere nearby a bird sang variations on a theme.

"Spirit," Kung said in a half whisper, pointing at a pale yellow flower that had grown out of a crack in the sidewalk. Upon closer inspection, I spotted tiny golden motes floating in the air around the flower, almost to small to see. Hyen snapped a photo and we kept walking.

It was amazing just how quickly nature had taken over. The city had always seemed so permanent, weathering gangs, bombs, monsters and machines, but after six months of neglect, the buildings were already dwarfed by trees, the streets turning to dirt.

Kung interrupted my thoughts. "Spirit," she said, pointing at a ghostly bumble-fly.

"Spirit." An unassuming patch of mushrooms.

"Spirit." A blob of wet hair, pulsating slightly and clinging to the base of a tree. I wrinkled my nose as Hyen captured that one on film.

"I thought we were gonna talk with the spirits, see if any of them know anything about the kids," I said, half whispering in Hyen's ear as we moved down the street, away from the nasty thing.

"I don't think a spirit of clogged drains would be able to help," Kung said, without turning my way. "Even if it could talk."

I glared at her back, but wiped the expression away as she turned around.

"You have to go with the flow, firebender. The spirits will come to us when and if they want to. We're in their home here."

She had a smug, better than you look on her face and some deep, angry part of me wanted to scare it off with a burst of flames. But I knew better than that, and had known it long enough that it worried me I still had those kinds of thoughts.

I stuck my hands in my pockets.

We walked on in silence for a few blocks, without encountering so much as a dust mote spirit. I tried to let my frustration and impatience go, like I did when meditating. I breathed a few times, focused on that and on my physical surroundings.

Up ahead, the molehound gave a snort and tugged on its leash, its oversize nose pointed at a ruined shop. Kung held up a hand for us to stop and looked back at Chungsoo. The earthbender closed his eyes, stomped on the ground, and nodded. Earthsense, like Bei Fong. Kung motioned us forward, the molehound leading the way.

"Mako. Light," Kung whispered from the open doorway.

I stepped forward, a handful of flames held in front of me. The street itself was in shadow, leaving the abandoned shop pitch dark inside, and so even with the fire, it took me a second to let my eyes adjust. The smell however hit me instantly.

Rot. Something had died in here not long ago.

I gagged and covered my nose with the back of my wrist, holding the flames up higher with my other hand. The molehound pointed towards the far corner of the shop and I entered the building, following Kung.

The rotten thing lay piled against the back wall of the shop, a brownish lump half hidden under a mound of filthy rags. The molehound whined, its tailless rear end wagging. Kung hissed at it and the animal sat, its ears going floppy in embarrassment.

Kung approached the pile of rags, a knife appearing in her hand. She used the blade to pull back the cloth, chunks of flesh clinging to it. Vermin dashed between my feet into the dark before I could see what they were. Rats or bugs or something in between. Kung inspected the thing for a minute more, but I couldn't watch, afraid I might be sick. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing as lightly as I could.

"Hyen!" Kung shouted. "Camera!"

Hyen entered the shop and passed the camera to Kung, who snapped a few photos before herding everyone out.

Back outside, Kung relayed a cryptic message to the rescue team. "Kung to base. We've got an NVP in here, at 241 Miagawa. Down on the ground floor."

The radio buzzed a confirmation and we started walking again.

"NVP?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

Kung kept her eyes on the road and the molehound in front of her. "Special Forces business. If you need to know, I'll tell you."

I frowned to myself, just a little. How much did Special Forces know about the spirits and what went on inside the quarantine? I wished I'd had the guts to get a closer look at what was hidden under those rags, but at least Kung had taken pictures. I caught Hyen's eye, then looked down at the camera and up again with a raised eyebrow.

Hyen returned my curious look with a slight smile and patted the camera. _The pictures are ours, not Special Forces'_ , the look appeared to be saying.

We continued deeper into the quarantine.

I was beginning to worry we wouldn't find any spirits capable of speaking when a shadow caught the corner of my eye, something that wasn't trees and broken buildings. I looked back, not sure I'd really seen anything.

But I had. A monkey spirit perched on a vine that stretched between the two remaining walls of a gutted building. The spirit had a strangely human face and hands, pale and bony and ancient looking. Keeping half an eye on the spirit, I grabbed Kung's shoulder and pointed.

"Hyen, go," Kung whispered.

Hyen stepped forward, stopping almost directly beneath the spirit's perch, on the doorstep of the ruined building.

"Hail, spirit!" Hyen shouted.

I had sat in on some of Hyen's _How to Interact with Spirits_ lessons from the local gurus, and one of the big take-aways had been "be polite," to the point of anachronistic formality.

The monkey spirit stood on its vine and bowed to us. "Good day to you, brave warriors!"

There was a lilt to the spirit's speech that reminded me of Kazuo and other old-fashioned Fire Nation nationals. I wished it would come down a little closer so I could read its face, but then again, this was a spirit, an alien being that likely couldn't express or feel human emotions. I wondered how anyone could communicate with something like that, something so _different_.

Hyen seemed to be making a go of it, at least.

"Honorable spirit, we are not warriors, but investigators, searching for missing children. Have you seen any human children here?"

The spirit wrapped its tail around the vine and lowered itself so it was suspended, upside down, only a few feet from Hyen's face.

"A quest!" The spirit stroked its chin. "No. I see no children, only the confused looking for the lost."

I glanced back the way we'd come. Nothing had changed. We weren't lost and I was only mildly confused.

"Do you know anyone who might know something about missing children?" Hyen asked.

The spirit dropped to the ground and stood, taking a couple waddling steps so it was nose to nose with Hyen. It tapped one long, pale human finger against its lips. "Yes, I believe so."

"Can I ask who?" Hyen said.

"You can."

Hyen winced. "Who?"

"Oh, a fair few. Four, at least."

With an excited movement, Hyen got out a pen and logbook, ready to take down names and addresses. The spirit made an excited face as well, as though it was happy to help. Something about its eagerness made me uncomfortable, but I held my tongue, not wanting to say anything in front of the spirit itself. Instead, I dedicated myself to the job of keeping everybody safe. Quietly, I took a step back and began scanning the area for threats while the rest of the team hung on the monkey spirit's every word.

"Well, I think that about wraps it up," Hyen said after a couple minutes. He bowed and thanked the spirit profusely before turning back to the group. "We ready to move on?"

Chungsoo nodded, Kung barked an order at her molehound and we continued down Miagawa Boulevard, following the directions the monkey spirit had given Hyen.

"You okay?" Hyen asked quietly once we were back in formation.

"I'm fine."

"Mm. I definitely believe that." Hyen gave my shoulder a punch and fell into step beside me. He seemed confident, but it wasn't enough to make me stop feeling anxious. Maybe I was being prejudiced, but I didn't want to trust the monkey spirit. But it was the closest thing we had to a lead, so I didn't say anything.

We paused here and there to take a few pictures of spirits and ruined buildings, and before long we reached the end of Miagawa Boulevard where it ran into the bluff east of the Silk Road Bridge.

"Which way?" Kung asked, and Hyen pointed to the left. Then a right few blocks later, back up the hill and headed towards the portal.

We continued on, the vines getting thicker and thicker until we could no longer see the street beneath our feet or the sky overhead. Chungsoo called a halt.

"I don't like this," the earthbender said, the first words he'd spoken since entering the quarantine.

"This is the way the spirit told us to go," Hyen said, arms folded.

Chungsoo looked to Kung and then me for support. I could see why he might be uncomfortable, walking on the vines and not in contact with the ground, but at the same time I had to agree with Hyen. We had a mission, and uneasy feelings weren't a good reason to turn back. If they had been, I would have turned back twenty minutes ago.

"Let's keep moving," I said.

Chungsoo relented and we continued on.

It was darker under the vines, like going into a tunnel. I swore I saw flashes of movement at the edges of my vision, but I wasn't sure if I was seeing spirits or animals or vines moving in the wind. Or maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me in the dim light.

Up ahead, Hyen spoke quietly with Kung, asking if it was really worth it to keep trying to take pictures—he already had taken a bunch and it was so dark in here, any photos he took would be blurry unless we took time to set up lights.

A rush of air and a sharp yell made me spin on my heel, just in time to see something huge and purple worm its way into the wall of vines, Chungsoo dragged along with it. A dark spirit.

"Huah!" I launched a spear of flames at the spot where the spirit had been just a moment before. But it and Chungsoo were gone, the only sign of their passage the smoldering mark I had left on the vines.

"What-?" Kung shouted as something the size of a flying bison and the texture of tapioca barreled into me. The air was dashed from my lungs and suddenly the wall of vines rushed towards me.

 _This is gonna hurt,_ I thought as the spirit slammed me into the wall.


	7. Chapter 7

7

I groaned and sat up. I was alone and hurt, sitting on the forest floor, no longer inside the vine tunnel. My shoulder felt like I'd been hit with a rock and every breath made something twinge painfully in my chest. In the grand scheme though, it wasn't that bad. I'd been through worse. I braced my good arm against my knee, pushed myself to my feet and looked around.

The spirit that had attacked was gone and the shadows from the trees were longer than they should have been. I swore and unclipped the radio from my hip.

"Backup, this is Mako. Do you copy? Anybody?"

I held the radio to my ear. Something inside the machine crackled, like maybe someone was trying to respond, but even the static was faint. I tried again, but no luck. The radios were new, top of the line, and were good for a mile or two if nothing interrupted the signal. I wasn't sure where I was, but the quarantine was only so big. On the other hand, there was a lot of stuff between me and my team, or the backup. Hills, buildings, trees, vines... Spirit vines had energy in them. Could they disrupt radio signals? Maybe that was why no one had answered.

"Hyen! Chungsoo?" I shouted.

I shouted again, hands cupped around my mouth, and waited for a response. Nothing. If the radio hadn't worked, shouting wasn't going to do me any good at all. I swore again, pacing.

I was lost.

No, that wasn't true, I just didn't know where I was. This was my city and I knew it, even if part of it was infested by vines and taken over by spirits.

I looked up at the sky, or what I could see of it through the leaves. There was the spirit portal, at eleven o'clock, and the sun, further down in the sky at nine. We'd entered the quarantine from the west, so all I had to do was keep the sun in front of me or a little to the left and eventually I'd get to the gate. I started walking.

I picked my way across the overgrown streets, watching the sun sink lower and lower behind the trees. How long had I been out? A few hours, at least. My head didn't hurt, at least not nearly as much as my shoulder and ribs, and the longer I walked, the more it bothered me. Was it spirit nonsense, or had I simply been knocked out?

Maybe that was why I hadn't been able to contact the rest of the team—they had moved on, regrouping with the backup while I'd been unconscious. I hoped Chungsoo was okay, and that the attacking spirit had left Hyen and Kung alone. Two non-benders facing something like that? Neither of them was helpless, but still...

I pushed away the worry and thought back to the _Taxonomy_ , wondering what kind of spirit had attacked. I didn't have much to go off of. A flash of dark purple, big and surprisingly soft for all the force it carried. Maybe some kind of nature spirit? A spirit of currents or of thundercloud shadows? It had packed a big punch though, so maybe something more solid.

"Do satomobile spirits exist?" I asked, trying to fill up the eerie silence.

Somewhere behind me, someone laughed.

I jumped, a fistful of flames appearing in my hand as I whirled on the spot. A chubby creature cowered on the ground behind me, stumpy arms pressed against the sides of its head. If it could be called a 'head.' The thing was green, pear-shaped and neckless, with short arms and legs and twigs for hair.

"Please don't!" the spirit cried, sounding for all the world like a little kid. I focused on that, ignoring the spirit's weird, unsettling appearance. It _sounded_ like a kid, so I was going treat it like a kid.

I put away the fire and crouched down so I was on eye level with the spirit. "I'm not gonna hurt you. See?" I showed the spirit my empty hands and shifted from a crouch into sitting cross legged on the ground. I knew spirits were tricky, that pretty much any random thing could provoke them into attacking, but this little thing looked so harmless it would have lost a fight against a baby.

The pear spirit let go of its head and waddled closer. It stopped inches from my knees and examined my hands, poking at me with stubby green fingers.

"I thought humans were supposed to be all one color," it said, moving my hands so my scarred arm rested on top of the other, comparing blotchy red with pale tan.

"Usually," I said. "My name's Mako. What's your name?"

"Oh! You can call me An Zhu."

I inclined my head, unable to bow while sitting on the ground. "Nice to meet you, An Zhu."

The spirit giggled and bowed back as much as its pudgy body would let it.

"Say, you wouldn't be able to help me with something, would you?"

"Help with what?"

"Well, a couple things," I said, wondering how to go about this and wishing Hyen was there. Again worry shot through me, but I put it aside.

"What? What?" the spirit shrieked, bouncing in place.

I smiled. Maybe this wasn't going to be so hard after all. "Right now I'm looking for my friends, but we came here looking for somebody else."

The spirit frowned and looked at the ground.

"Do you think you can help?"

The spirit shook its head, turning its whole body side to side in the process. "I don't know any other humans," it said. "I mean, not _human_ -humans."

"What do you mean, human-humans?"

"You know, the humans who live in the human lands, not the ones who live in the spirit lands."

"There's humans living here?" I shouted.

The pear spirit took a step back. "I guess so."

"They're not supposed to be here!" Raiko had outlawed it. He'd even provided housing for everyone who was displaced. And even if it hadn't been illegal, what kind of person would _want_ to stay here? There was no electricity, no running water, no safety from dark or malicious spirits.

"Are you going to make them leave?" the spirit asked.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Maybe, I dunno. It's not why I came here, but... I wanna talk with them." I _had_ to talk with them, if only to find out where they were so I could report them to Bei Fong. "Do you know where they are?"

The spirit smiled. "I do! They're this way!" It pointed with one stumpy arm down a darkened alley and waddled off, fading, becoming more transparent as it got farther away from me. I got to my feet, ribs twinging, and jogged after it.

I followed the spirit down the alley, through an abandoned building, under the branches of an enormous tree, across a street and into another alley. I would have wondered if the spirit was just trying to get me more lost, if it hadn't been moving with such purpose, in such straight lines. I also got the feeling it didn't understand the concept of streets.

After ten or so minutes of frantic jogging, climbing, and in one instance, crawling, the spirit stopped short just outside a large, mostly intact building. A library. Firelight flickered inside the half broken, half boarded up windows.

"Do spirits make fire?" I asked.

"Fire spirits do."

"Right." I squared my shoulders, winced, and knocked on the door. I could fight a fire spirit if I had to, or talk to it. Talking with An Zhu hadn't been so hard. And besides, if they really _were_ humans in there, that just made things that much easier.

No one answered the door, so I waited a second, then knocked again. "Hello? Republic City Police! I just wanna talk!"

"GooOOOoo AwaaAAAY!" a wavering voice called from inside.

I frowned. It sounded more like a person pretending to be a spirit than an actual spirit. I pounded on the door a third time. "This is Detective Mako with the RCPD! Open up!"

I heard voices inside, loud at first, then going quiet. The pear spirit tugged on my pant leg.

"Try asking nicely?"

Even though it looked harmless, I didn't want to anger the spirit. I cupped one hand around my mouth and leaned in towards the door, trying to raise my voice without shouting. "Please?"

Silence.

I leaned my head on the door and looked down at the spirit, who shrugged. I half wanted to blast the door down, but past experience told me that was the quickest way to get somebody mad at me, and mad people weren't very cooperative. I sighed and touched a hand to my ribs where they hurt, wondering if it was just bruised, or if the damage was more serious. Running after An Zhu certainly hadn't helped.

From inside, a voice sounded, the same spooky voice from before. "WhaAAAtt do you waAAAaannt?"

"I just wanna talk," I said, loud, but not shouting.

A moment later the door opened, almost leaving me tumbling to the ground. A gloved hand appeared between the door and its frame, holding out a long strip of dark cloth.

"Put it oOOOOonnnnNNN," the spooky voice said.

I took the cloth, looked at it. Best I could guess it was a child's scarf, or maybe a sash for someone exceptionally skinny.

"Um."

"It's a blindfold," spooky voice said, forgetting for a moment to be spooky.

"I see." I looked down at the spirit. "What do you think, An Zhu? Can I trust these guys?"

"For sure!"

"'Cause it doesn't look like they trust me." I looked at the blindfold for a second, considering. This was not really an ideal situation. I could have left then, tried to regroup with backup, or at least find my way to the border fence. But on the other hand I didn't know if I'd be able to find this place again, and the more information I had, the better Bei Fong and the rest of the force would be able to act on it.

I wrapped the blindfold around my head, fixing it in place with a sloppy knot. "Ready!" What was the worst that could happen?

The door opened and two hands grabbed me, one by the shoulder, the other by the forearm and I was led inside. Something weird and knobbly touched my free hand and I flinched, only to realize it was the pear spirit trying to hold my hand. Whether that was creepy or cute, I wasn't sure, but I let the thing wrap its stubby fingers around one of mine.

My host (or captor, depending on how I looked at the situation) led me to a chair and had me sit.

"So, Detective Mako," the not so spooky voice said. "What brings you to our little abode? Are you with Special Forces?" There was a harshness to the voice—a man's voice—that told me Special Forces weren't very popular in this neighborhood.

"It depends what you mean by 'with,'" I said, doing my best to be delicate. "If you mean 'with' like a part of, then no. If you mean 'with' like physically together in the same place, then yes?" I reached for the blindfold without thinking, wanting to gauge the man's reaction, but a hand grabbed me by the wrist.

"Don't," the man said. And then, "Explain."

"I'm with the Missing Persons department. My partner and I came here looking for some kids we _think_ got abducted by a spirit. We brought two Special Forces officers along for protection and assistance."

"And where are they now?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. A spirit attacked us and we got separated. I got lost, found An Zhu, and..." I trailed off, wondering if the pear spirit was a boy or a girl and if I should call it he or she or what. "And we came here so I could talk to you guys."

The man didn't respond right away, and I took the opportunity to try to take stock of the situation. Removing the blindfold would be a piece of cake, but it would also upset the man and make him resistive. Not that he was being especially cooperative at the moment.

There were other people in the room as well, trying to be quiet, and a fire burned somewhere nearby. The air smelled like smoke and mildew and unwashed bodies, but not strong enough to be overpowering.

"What do you know about us?" the man asked.

"Nothing. An Zhu said there were humans here, and I wanted to know why you're here and if you could help in our investigation."

Whispering in the background. There were more people hiding here than I had thought. Footsteps approached and there was more whispering, almost close enough and loud enough for me to make out the words, but not quite.

"No," the man said. "We can't."

"Can't what?" I asked, my patience running thin. This had been a bad idea, a decision made when I was tired, hurt and stressed, not thinking clearly.

"He knows we're here!" the man said.

A second voice, a woman, interrupted him. "But he's with the police, surely-"

"No!"

My patience ran out. "Listen," I said as I pulled off the blindfold, but the rest of the thought evaporated from my mind.

Monsters stared back at me. They were ugly and asymmetrical, deformed nightmare creatures patched together from pieces of things that didn't match. I froze for a moment, and then instinct took over.

"Hah!" I jumped to my feet, swinging one arm around to create a curtain of flame to distract and disorient as I ran for the door. Something hard and pebbled gripped my hand, jerking on my arm. The pear spirit.

"Mako!" the spirit cried, stopping me in my tracks. It was in danger and I had to protect it—it was just a little kid.

The monsters took advantage of my distraction, and a bat-faced creature with long, skinny arms whanged me in the shins with a metal poker. I yelped, caught myself with one hand as I fell, and the poker slammed down again, striking me across my already injured ribs. The bat-faced creature raised the poker a third time and I could only watch, too pained to move as the thing swung at my head, aiming to smash in my skull.

A tree monster stopped the blow. Bits of wood and bark rained down on my face as branches creaked, twisting the poker out of the bat creature's grip.

"That's enough," the tree monster said, its voice cracking like dry twigs. "Pick him up."

Monstrous hands grabbed me under the arms and by the back of my shirt, hauling me to my feet. A groan escaped me and I let myself be held up by the monsters as the branch monster moved behind me, tied my hands together with twine.

While this was being done I tried to comprehend what was happening—it had all been so fast and I didn't know what was going on. The pear spirit had taken me to see humans, but they weren't humans, they were monsters. Not spirits, I was pretty sure, because even dark spirits had a kind of beauty to them, not like these violent, half-formed things.

Whatever they were, they were smart and strong and there were way too many of them for me to fight off hurt like I was. Too many even if I hadn't been hurt. I coughed.

"Put him in the basement," one of the monsters said, the same one that had talked to me before. The not so spooky voice. I twisted my head around to look at it.

At first glance it looked like a man, but looking closer, it really, really didn't. Only a few sparse tufts of hair covered its head and its skin was mottled brown and yellow, tight to the bone in places, saggy and melted in others. One eye could barely open, the skin was so tight, while the other seemed to be sliding off its face, a damp crescent of raw tissue exposed underneath, leaking tears. It wore clothes, like the rest of the monsters, but they didn't fit right—mostly slack except for where lumps and growths tried to force their way out between the seams.

Mismatched hands forced me to tear my gaze away as the monsters dragged me from the room.

* * *

 _A/N: Mako is the proud sometimes-owner of the Idiot Ball. Not unlike a certain author who may have bitten off more than she can chew this semester. I'll try to update every other week, but we'll see!_


	8. Chapter 8

8

I lay on the ground, panting from the pain of being thrown down the basement steps. I focused for a minute on my breathing and the smell of the dirt under my nose. Once I had myself under control, I wormed my way up so I was sitting on my knees, hands still tied behind my back.

"An Zhu!" I shouted and a moment later the spirit appeared with a little rush of air, barely visible in the dark. "You tricked me!"

"Nuh-uh," the spirit said.

"Those are _not_ humans up there. They're monsters," I said, spitting out the words.

"Really?" the spirit said, a note of fear in its voice. "They told me they were humans."

I groaned. Maybe An Zhu wasn't a pear spirit, but a spirit of gullibility. That was why it acted like a little kid.

"Are you okay?" the spirit asked.

"I'm fine." I could use a healer though, or at least some painkillers. "Can you untie me?"

"Uh-huh!" The spirit waddled around behind me and started tugging on the course twine.

A rectangle of light appeared at the top of the stairs, a roughly human silhouette within.

"An Zhu! Get away from him!" the monster shouted, and the pear spirit stopped what it was doing.

The monster descended into the basement, a thick mat under one arm, a bundle of rope draped over the other. It dropped the mat on the ground and knelt beside me.

"Sorry about this," it said in a woman's voice as it tied me up further. "But it's just until we figure out what to do with you."

Once my hands and feet were more securely tied, the monster patted me down, removed my radio, my logbook and all the detritus of my pockets.

"Try to get some rest. An Zhu, come with me." With that, the monster and the spirit left and the basement door closed, leaving me by myself.

####

Around dawn, the droopy-eyed monster came down to the basement and untied me, then took me upstairs to let me relieve myself and have a bite to eat. Part of the library had been converted into a makeshift kitchen with a table and a wood burning stove and a sink that was not connected to any plumbing. It was a step above camping, but not a huge step.

The droopy-eyed monster watched me while I ate, staring at me in silence. I ignored it. I hadn't been able to sleep much, so I'd spent most of the night thinking, and was taking the time now to go over those thoughts and decide what I was going to say to the monster in charge. Other monsters prowled the periphery, spying on me, or making sure I didn't try to escape.

Whatever they were, these monsters were smart, smart enough to trick the local spirits into thinking they were humans, and smart enough to deal with Special Forces in some capacity. But what did they want? And where did they come from? Did they want to join human society, or did they want to destroy it? They hadn't done anything truly horrible to me yet, but I couldn't quite convince myself it was out of the goodness of their hearts.

Maybe they were acting on pure self-preservation? That was probably the case, and it meant I had to do everything in my power to seem non-threatening. But at the same time, I didn't want them to think I was too meek and powerless, or they'd try to force me to do something I didn't want to do, and then I _would_ have to fight them, which would be a heck of a lot easier if I wasn't still hurting.

I tapped my spoon against the tabletop for a minute before pushing my chair away from the table and looking back at the monster.

"What are you going to do with me?"

The monster took my bowl and spoon, set them aside and sat down across from me with a sigh.

"It depends. Do you know where the Avatar is?"

This was not the response I had been expecting. I'd thought the monster would say something along the lines of ' _bwa-ha-ha, we will keep you trapped here forever, pitiful human_ ,' at which point I would be forced to fight my way out, or possibly play along until I could sneak away quietly.

Without really thinking about it, I gave my standard answer. "I don't know. Somewhere in the spirit world." I waved in the direction of the portal, or what I thought was the direction of the portal. "Why do you want to know?" The Avatar was the bridge between humans and spirits, but these monsters were something else, neither human nor spirit. Not under the Avatar's jurisdiction.

"The Avatar is a symbol of hope," the monster said, looking at me with eyes unfocused. "Whenever something goes wrong, threatens the balance of the world, the Avatar is always there, to swoop in at the last moment and save the world from chaos."

"What chaos?" I asked, doing my best to keep my voice level. Were the monsters threatening to bring about chaos, or were they more like the indicators, the advance warning of chaos to come? Were they the thing Jinora was afraid of?

" _This_ chaos, Detective." The monster waved a hand at its face. It sounded angry.

I stared at the monster, not understanding. "I don't-"

"This is what happens when you upset the spirits."

####

It turned out An Zhu had neither lied to me, nor been lied to. The monsters in the library _were_ humans, and each of them had done something to anger the spirits that had passed through the portal and into the material world. Like Tuan, the man with the droopy eye, who had emptied his trash into the mouth of a toad spirit that had taken up residence in the alley behind his house.

There were maybe twenty or thirty of them in all, and most of them probably had whole folders dedicated to them somewhere in my office. Not that I was going to be able to connect any of the faces I saw here with the photos in those files.

Tuan seemed to be their unofficial leader, and he explained the situation to me.

"It didn't start right away," he said, as we sat holding cups of tea in what had once been a private reading room up on the second floor. "It's been generations and generations since spirits could physically enter our world, and I think they forgot they had this power."

The power he was describing was _possession._ Not too long after the Republic City portal had opened up, the spirits had realized they could take control over a human for a few seconds by physically merging their body with that of a human. This possession left the human permanently changed, taking on aspects of the spirit that had possessed them. Of course, that was if they even survived. If the spirit transformed something important—heart, lungs, brain—the human died. Some quickly, others more slowly.

"Once the spirits realized they could do it," Tuan said, "everything broke down. The peace ended, and spirits were possessing people left and right. A lot of people died before Raiko set up the quarantine."

I sat there, dumbfounded. It fit with what I and the public knew about Raiko's quarantine: that the spirits and the wilds were dangerous, that people had been killed and everyone would be safer and happier if there was a barrier between humans and spirits.

"And Special Forces?" I asked.

"They maintain the border. Sometimes they bring us supplies, or force spirits back inside the fences."

"And keep you inside too," I said, feeling the righteous anger build inside me.

Tuan shook his head, flaps of loose skin swaying.

"They're _not_ keeping you all here?"

"What do you think would happen if we left, Detective?"

I considered for a moment, thought about my own reaction, imagined what my friends and family would do if they saw Tuan or one of the other possessed humans walking through their neighborhood.

"Probably wouldn't go so well."

"About as well as a train with square wheels," Tuan said with a lopsided smile. I didn't smile back.

"So, what? You're just gonna stay here?"

"You have another suggestion?"

"Yes! Call in the press!"

Tuan just shook his head. "Why? So we can incite panic in the streets? So our family and friends can see the monsters we have become? No. It's like I said. The Avatar is our only hope."

I didn't know what to say to that. Part of me truly believed the people had the right to know about this and the shady way Raiko was dealing with it, while part of me could see where Tuan was coming from. These people were ashamed. They had angered the spirits and didn't want anyone to know what they had done, while at the same time, they wanted the damage to be repaired.

"What about Special Forces?" I asked. "Why didn't they send a healer?"

"They did. Several. Gurus and doctors too. If you can think of it, Special Forces has tried it."

I frowned. There had to be something we could do. It was just _wrong_ to leave people like this, crimes committed against the spirits or not. Tuan was being vague about what exactly Special Forces and the government had done to help them. Maybe their "help" hadn't been very helpful? What if Raiko had some reason for not wanting to solve this problem? Maybe solving it—fixing the possessed—would further anger the spirits? But if that was the case, how could Raiko _know_ if fixing a possessed person would anger the spirits?

"Did they have any kind of success?" I asked, wishing I had my logbook to keep track of the conversation.

Tuan met my eyes, a little surprised, maybe. His face was hard to read. "The doctors... well, I wouldn't say they _fixed_ anybody, but there were a couple of us they managed to help."

I watched the other man for a moment, waiting for him to continue. "Help how?" I prompted when Tuan didn't provide further information.

"Cosmetic surgery. They're not winning any beauty contests though," he said with what I interpreted to be a grimace.

"Right. And they did that surgery here, or in the city?" I hoped it had been here, despite the obvious sanitary issues. It wouldn't be too hard to look up doctors who had been granted access into the quarantine, and then question them about what they'd done.

"Here," Tuan said, nodding.

"What about the spirits? How did they react?" I would have to ask about the surgery patients later, when I had pen and paper to write down names and addresses. Right now, the spirits were the more relevant line of inquiry.

Tuan gave me an odd look, indecipherable through his twisted skin. "Just how you'd expect, given their natures. An Zhu was scared, Spikes was curious, most of 'em were indifferent." He sipped his tea, putting on airs of indifference himself.

"What about the ones that attacked the people who the doctors helped? How did _those_ spirits react?"

Tuan snorted out the tea he'd been sipping, wiped the droopy side of his mouth with a cloth. "Blazes if I know! We don't exactly keep _those_ ones around."

"Do you know where to find them?"

"Find 'em? Son, imagine you were attacked by a wild animal. Would you want to go find it again after the doctors patched you up?"

"No," I said, mostly because I knew it was the answer Tuan wanted to hear. It was the traditional, spirit-fearing answer, not the modern, practical one that systematically removed threats to public health and safety. I took a sip of tea and committed to memory the fact that I was going to have to find those spirits. If I couldn't kill them, arrest them or banish them to the spirit world, I could at least find out what had angered them and inform the public so no one would make the same mistake twice.

Tuan nodded in smug silence, and I nursed my tea, thinking.

Raiko didn't want the public knowing about people getting possessed by spirits, and neither did the people who had been possessed. But, did Raiko _know_ that the possessed didn't want to go public? Or rather, did he _trust_ that they didn't want to go public? He was clearly giving them incentives to stay inside the quarantine, but it had to be costing him something. He was providing supplies and doctors and involving Special Forces, and that was a lot of money and resources that might have been spent on other things. What was more, the longer he kept this up, the more people were going to get involved, and the risk of the news going public increased.

So, why hadn't Raiko permanently tied up the loose ends right away? It was what the triads would have done, and would have made it impossible for someone like me to stumble upon the situation.

I would have said Raiko was being moral and honorable by leaving the possessed alive, but to leave them in these conditions? Maybe he wanted to continue testing on them. If he found a solution or a cure, he might be able to lift the quarantine and take back the wilds, a move that would definitely win him a second reelection.

Absently, I smoothed back my hair. The conditions here weren't that bad—I'd faced worse on the streets—but the isolation was appalling. These people deserved better than an abandoned library in the middle of the wilds. They deserved to see their families again and to have access to all the doctors and healers Republic City had to offer, not just the ones from Special Forces Raiko could spare.

And Tuan thought Korra was the answer.

I looked at Tuan. "Why?"

"Why what? Why not go after wild animals?"

"I mean, why Korra? Why do you think she can fix this?"

"Because she's the Avatar," Tuan said, as though this was obvious. "Which reminds me..." He stood and hobbled over to the door, opened it and shouted into the hallway. "Spikes! Get in here!"

Tuan turned away from the door. "I'm glad you came here, Detective Mako. I'm not one to believe in destiny, but it is awfully lucky that of all the people in the city, it was you who found your way here." A hard, scratchy sound like knives on rough wood came in through the open door.

"Why's that?" I asked, carefully pushing my chair out, getting my feet ready so I could run if I had to.

"You know where the Avatar is, and you're going to bring her to us." Tuan stepped away from the door, something moving in the darkness behind him.

A giant snake lunged through the doorway and I jumped to my feet, knocking over the chair and my tea.

"Huah!" I thrust a fist at it, missing entirely, and fell over backwards, tripping over the upturned chair in an effort to get away. The snake chuckled, wrapping its coils first around one leg, then the other, winding its way up my body as I tried to pull away, too scared of burning myself to use my fire on it.

It wasn't a snake, I realized, but a spirit made of twisted dead vines and rusted metal scales.

I writhed against it, overtaken by fear. I couldn't be turned into one of those things! I had my responsibilities, my life, my body. Nothing was worth giving those up.

The snake spirit laughed again, squeezing, cutting.

"Spikes won't possess you," Tuan said. "He's only gonna keep an eye on you."

"Wha-" I said, the question turning into a scream as the spirit's bladed head wormed its way under my shirt. I tore at the buttons, trying to get the thing away from my skin, but Tuan reached down, grabbed my hands, forced them up over my head.

Metal scales bit into my skin, spots of blood staining my shirt as the spirit coiled around me. Finally the spirit stopped moving, its cold scales pressed flat against my torso. Tuan pulled me to my feet, dusted off my back like I was a kid that had fallen down on the playground.

"See? You're fine."

I looked down at myself, panting, then grabbed my shirt and ripped it off over my head, not bothering with the buttons. The spirit's head rested on my collarbone and stared up at me with menacing yellow eyes.

With one hand wrapped up in my shirt, I grabbed the spirit's head, trying to uncoil it from around me. Instantly, bladed scales dug into my skin, making me bleed from a dozen new places.

I yelped, let go of the spirit, and the scales went flat again. The spirit flicked a forked tongue at me and rested its head on my collarbone again, laughing softly.

"Spirits," I swore, bracing myself against the table. The cold weight of the snake spirit pressed against me, heavy and uncomfortable, but no longer cutting into my skin.

"Spikes here is just gonna make sure you don't do anything to compromise the situation," Tuan said, picking up my shirt from where it had fallen and turning it right-side-out.

"You're letting me go?"

Tuan closed his eyes, shook his head. "Not exactly. You're going to find the Avatar for us."

I laughed, not because anything was funny, but because it was all so outrageous. "You're serious," I said, seeing Tuan's guarded posture, head and shoulders hunched forward slightly.

"Dead serious," Tuan said, handing me back my shirt. "You're whole, you're a bender and you are connected to the Avatar. There is no one better suited to find her. Spikes is going to make sure you do it and do it quietly. Don't let anyone know you know about us and do what we ask without any tricky business."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, wanting so badly to just burn down everything and run away. "So, what? You expect me to search an entire planet full of dangerous spirits? Do you have any idea how insane that is?"

Tuan pulled something small and flat from his pocket. "It's not insane, it's your job." He handed over the thing. My badge, with _Junior Detective Mako, Missing Persons Department_ engraved into the metal.

"Right," I said, playing along even though this was so far outside my job description it wasn't even funny. "But to do my job, I need my partner." I also needed a number of other things, but if I could get in touch with Hyen and the department...

"We'll think about it," Tuan said. He turned and left, closing the reading room door behind him and locking it with a click. The spirit wrapped around me sniggered gently.


	9. Chapter 9

9

It was the dawn of my third day in the quarantine zone, and I lay on my back, trying to ignore the weight of the spirit wrapped around me. For the time being, the possessed humans had me locked inside one of the reading rooms up on the second floor of the ruined library. It didn't look like that was going to change anytime soon.

Being held against my will seemed to be a recurring theme in my life, but this was the first time I actually sympathized with my captors. I really did want to help them, and I could see why they didn't trust me, but knowing that just made it all the more frustrating. Why couldn't they just understand?

If it hadn't been for the snake spirit, "Spikes," I could have escaped without too much trouble. One or two decent blasts would knock out the reading room window, and as long as the sun was shining, I could use my jets to cushion my fall and then run for it. But every time I got close to the window or the door, the spirit made its presence known, giving me a new cut to add to my collection.

I got up, started pacing around the room, at a loss for what to do. Where were Hyen and the others? Assuming they were alright and in the know about the possessed, it was possible Kung and Chungsoo would think to look for me here since they were Special Forces. But given what I'd learned, I wasn't so sure I wanted them to find me. I didn't really trust Special Forces anymore. They would want to keep me quiet about the possessed, and I was sure they had plenty of not so nice ways of doing that.

But, anything they did to me, they would have to answer to Hyen for it. Hyen was smart, he had the guts and the knowledge and the wherewithal to figure it out if Special Forces tried to pull the wool over his eyes. Even if the possessed kept me locked up here indefinitely and Special Forces didn't come get me, Hyen would eventually come through.

Though of course the chances of my partner or anybody else finding me went down if the possessed forced me through the portal on a wild eel-swan chase.

Around mid-morning Tuan let himself into my makeshift cell. I caught a glimpse of a handful of spirits and possessed waiting outside, eavesdropping, before Tuan closed the door. He handed me a needle and thread.

"For your shirt."

I took them without thanks and set them on the table. "What do you want?"

"We've discussed the dangers. You can choose one companion to accompany you into the spirit world, someone not connected with the police."

I was taken aback. I'd fully expected them to just shove me through the portal and hope for the best.

"You get one chance. One person to contact."

I swallowed and nodded to show I'd understood, suddenly much more scared than I had been a few moments ago.

"I'll give you some time to think," Tuan said. He left, closing the door behind him.

####

That night, I snuck over the border alone. Well, not quite alone if I counted Spikes. Tuan had given me very specific instructions as to how and when and where to get past the Special Forces border guards, as well as instructions for Spikes if I disobeyed. It made me wonder if Tuan's insistence that their going public would be bad came from personal experience—if he knew how to get out of the quarantine unnoticed, he must have actually done it.

Even while I considered that, ten thousand what-if's ran through my head as well. What if someone I knew spotted me? What if my "companion" wasn't home, or refused to come with me? What if Special Forces caught me (or us) coming back?

Most of these would probably end up with me bleeding out on the roadside.

I half hoped my "companion" wasn't there, that he wouldn't come. I didn't want to drag anyone into my mess, but at the same time, I knew I wasn't going to survive by myself in the spirit world. I'd been there before and barely made it out alive that time.

I walked along, sticking to the residential areas and the quieter parts of the neighborhood. The occasional vehicle trundled past, but for the time being I as alone as we could be in a city of millions. Almost.

After maybe half an hour or so I reached my destination, a newish apartment building that tried and failed to look old and classy. The molding was made of plaster, not stone, and was already cracked and crumbling. I let myself inside, climbed a flight of stairs and knocked on a familiar door.

It was a couple minutes before I got an answer.

"Go away," said a groggy voice.

"It's Mako!" I shouted. "Let me in!"

There was a crash and a shout and then Bolin burst out the door, arms spread wide for a hug.

"Mako! I heard-"

I held out my hands, stopping him before he could get his arms around me.

"Bo, I need your help."

"Huh? But..." He lowered his arms. "What?"

"Korra and Asami are in danger. I need you to help me find them." The first part was a flat out lie, but Tuan had told me to do whatever I had to to get Bolin to come along, even if it meant lying to him or knocking him out and dragging him into the quarantine zone. If I didn't, then, well... Spikes.

"What? Korra?" Bolin said, still not fully awake.

"I need you, Bolin. You're the only one who can help." This _was_ true, but not in the way I was insinuating.

"But they're..." He yawned. "In the spirit world. What happened? Did Jinora find them?"

"I, uh, no. A spirit told me."

"What, really?" Bolin asked. His eyes got wide and he stood up straighter, less sleepy now. "A spirit told _you_?"

"Yes, me! Please, Bo, we gotta go!" I reached for his arm, ready to drag him down the stairs. The sooner we were out of the city and in the spirit world, the sooner I could stop lying and tell him what was really going on.

Bolin misinterpreted my gesture, grabbing my hand and popping my other shoulder with his fist. "Okay, bro. Gimme two minutes." He let go and ran back into to his apartment.

I followed and watched from the entryway as Bolin crashed around his apartment, getting dressed and throwing things into a backpack. A flashlight, clothes, a box of instant noodles, a bar of soap.

"Okay. Let's go," he said, after he had slid a key under the neighbors' door along with a note asking them to feed Pabu.

"This way," I said, once we were outside, waving for Bolin to follow me.

"Hold up," he said, and I paused. "There's this move I just learned I've been wanting to try out."

None of the words in that sentence inspired confidence, but I nodded anyway.

Tongue sticking out in concentration, Bolin planted his heels and raised up a section of the road, about eight feet square and four inches thick. With a lifting motion, he folded the square in half so it made an L shape and hopped on.

"Ta-da! All aboard the Bolin train, next stop, spirit world!"

I got on, holding onto the upright part of the L. "Are you sure about this?"

"For sure! I just gotta..." With a grunt he kicked a hole through the bottom of the "train," stuck one leg through and started pushing. The train skidded down the street at a brisk walking pace, making a terrible scraping noise that rattled my teeth and shook my brains to mush.

"I'm not-" I started to say, but Bolin shouted over me.

"Just tell me where to go!"

I pointed and we scraped along, moving a little bit faster every time Bolin gave us a shove. The train shook and complained for every second of it, but Bolin's force of will kept it from crumbling.

"We're here, stop! Stop!" I shouted once we were in sight of the quarantine zone, by now going fast enough to make my eyes water. Bolin put on the breaks and we skated to a halt.

Bolin stepped off and the train promptly fell apart.

"Gimme a minute," he said, hands braced on his knees. I kind of wanted to ask where he had learned that trick—we had definitely violated a traffic law or three—but now was not the time. I let Bolin catch his breath, hoping we had timed it right, that this was the right spot and Special Forces wouldn't catch us jumping the fence.

"Can you get us over the fence?" I asked. I had climbed it before, and would rather not do that again.

He nodded, wiped his brow and motioned for me to come stand next to him. I grit my teeth and grabbed onto his shoulders. We'd done this move a hundred times, but it never ceased to scare the chi out of me.

Bolin stomped and an instant later we were rocketing through the air. We landed hard in the middle of a crater, and now it was my turn to stop and catch my breath, even though it had been Bolin who had done all the work.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." I brushed some rock dust off my pants, glanced back at the fence. A light bobbed in the distance on the other side, getting closer. "Let's keep moving."

"One sec," Bolin said, and with a motion, smoothed out the crater he had made and knocked over the pillar on the other side of the fence. It wasn't perfect, but at least it wasn't blindingly obvious what we'd done anymore. I pointed us in the direction of the portal and we started walking.

The first time I had entered the quarantine, I had quickly learned that the streets weren't what they used to be, and that getting from A to B was harder than it should have been. This time, I had some help.

"An Zhu! Hey, An Zhu!" There were a few other spirits that had made friends with the possessed humans, but An Zhu was apparently the most vocal and the most helpful of the bunch.

The pear spirit appeared in front of me.

"Hi, Mako! I thought humans sleep at night. Are you sure you should be awake right now?" It trotted along beside me, skipping every other step to keep up.

"Yeah, I'm sure." I turned to Bolin. "Bo, this is An Zhu, the spirit who helped me before."

Bolin peered around me to look at the spirit. "Hey, little guy..." He straightened up again and whispered in my ear. "You know it's just going _brreepa eepa deepa_ , right?" he said, making some high-pitched nonsense sounds.

I raised an eyebrow at him, but there were more important matters at hand than figuring out which of us was crazy. I turned back to the pear spirit.

"An Zhu, can you take us to the portal?"

"Uh-huh!" The pear spirit waddled down the road, leading the way. Bolin and I followed in silence, focused on keeping the spirit in sight and not tripping over any roots and stones in the dark.

It took some time, but eventually we made it, the golden portal lighting up the wilds around us. There was something incongruent about it in my mind. Like something so dangerous and problematic shouldn't be so beautiful.

"Thanks, An Zhu," I said once we had entered the clearing surrounding the portal. "You can go home now."

The spirit waved goodbye and waddled away a few feet before vanishing into thin air.

"You ready?" I asked Bolin.

"Ready."

I shielded my eyes and we stepped forward into the other world.


	10. Chapter 10

10

Bolin and I sat on the ground in the middle of a barren plain, maybe a quarter mile or so from the portal. As far as I could see, there were nothing but rocks and dusty, dried up shrubs around us, though overhead clouds threatened lightning and rain.

I held up a handful of flames, bright as I could make them, while Bolin squinted at my logbook.

Tuan had specifically told me I was to keep Bolin in the dark, but I sure as shipping wasn't going to follow that rule. So rather than explain the whole situation aloud I had written it out, making sure the snake spirit 'Spikes,' who was still hidden under my shirt, couldn't see. I didn't think spirits could read—especially Spikes, given that its brain couldn't be bigger than a lichi nut—but I wasn't taking any chances.

Bolin closed the logbook and gave it back to me. "I gotta hand it to you, bro. You know how to keep things interesting."

I rolled my eyes. Interesting was just about the biggest understatement of the year.

"Can I see the..." He trailed off and made a slithering motion with his arm.

I shook my head, trying to make it doubly clear he wasn't supposed to know about the snake spirit. As if it could sense we were _not_ talking about it, Spikes chuckled softly under my shirt. Bolin's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"This is bad, Mako. We need a plan."

"I know. I've been thinking about it." I picked up my pen, more to fiddle with it than to write anything down. "If we want to find Korra and Asami, we have a lot of ground to cover. We should ask around, see if we can find a spirit who knows where they are. Or if they've heard any rumors, or know anybody who might have heard something about a rumor..."

I sighed, feeling the weight of my task. It was impossible. And worse, I _could_ have been doing something useful. I could have been in the office, helping Hyen solve the Snatcher case, not out here in the middle of dangerous nowhere, dragging Bolin along on a futile mission. If we didn't get back soon, Bolin might lose his job. His enjoyable, high-paying-

Bolin clapped his hands in front of my face. "Hey. Chill out."

I looked up and realized I'd let the fire go out and was rapping my pen against my knee, anxious. I dropped the pen and restarted my handful of flames, banishing the dark. "Sorry."

"When was the last time you slept?"

"I dunno," I said, thinking it was probably bad I was having a hard time figuring out how many hours it had been.

Bolin pushed himself to his feet. "Right. One earth tent, coming up."

I watched as Bolin backed off into the gloom and carefully raised up one slab and then another, propping second against the first so they made an upside down V. He messed around with the tent for another five or ten minutes, shoring it up, making it look nice or something. I couldn't really tell what he was doing, blinded by the flames under my nose.

"Finished," he said, sounding out of breath. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. "I'll be lookout, you just pretend you're at the beach."

"What?" I said. I wanted to protest, to say that _I_ was the firebender, that I could keep watch in the dark better than he could, that it was my fault he was up in the middle of the night, but somehow the words dissolved in my mouth as Bolin pushed me into the tent.

It wasn't very big, just long enough for me to lie down in without my feet sticking out the door, but the bottom of it was covered in warm, soft sand. I let myself sink into it, doing my best to clear my mind and sleep.

####

I woke up with sand sticking to every inch of my body. It was in my hair, in my clothes, under my fingernails and in my ears. I did my best to dust myself off, then went outside, feeling truly rested for the first time in... four days? Five? I'd lost track, and I knew being in the spirit world wasn't going to help, since time was different here.

Bolin had kept himself busy while I'd slept. He'd built a wall all the way around the tent, about three feet high, and made himself a sort of recliner chair to sleep on. I smiled at his efforts and sat down on the wall, logbook in my lap.

It must have rained at some point, because what had before been barren rock was now a massive field of grass and flowers. Greens and blues and purples stretched all the way to the horizon in all directions. The portal glowed not too far away, and a formidable range of pointed, brown-black mountains loomed in the distance.

I wrote down some thoughts in the logbook and waited for Bolin to wake up, trying to ignore the fact that I was hungry. Were flowers edible? I saw butterflies among the blooms, and swore I heard crickets, but I had a long ways to go before I was going to start eating strange plants and hunting bugs. Especially spirit bugs.

Before long Bolin woke up, tore down the tent and we shared a package of instant noodles. He had a few more where that came from, so at least we were set on that front for the moment.

"Did it rain last night?" I asked as we crunched our dry noodles.

"If it did, I didn't notice."

I snorted. "Some watchman you are."

"Alas, but such was not my destined profession."

I laughed and we enjoyed the morning peace in quiet.

"You know, I think I see a flaw in your plan," Bolin said once we were finished eating. "Your 'ask the spirits if they've seen Korra' plan."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. There's not a whole lot of spirits out here."

"There's butterflies," I said.

"Yeah, but butterflies can't tell us where Korra and Asami are." He frowned. "Unless you think they could fly in the shape of a big arrow and point us to them."

I shook my head. "No, you're right. We'll have to find something smarter. I was thinking, what if we went to the other portal?"

"Like at the South Pole?"

"Or the North Pole." The North Pole was much closer to Republic City than the South. "We saw lots of spirits around the southern portal. I bet the north's the same." I tugged on my shirt, hoping Bolin would get the clue that I was intentionally not voicing everything I was thinking.

Bolin glanced at what I was doing, then caught my eye, looking mildly confused. "Yeah. But that's where Eska is, and I don't know if I want to, you know... go there."

"It's closer," I reminded him, wondering if I was going to have to write out my thoughts again. It was kind of a long shot, but if we found the northern portal, Bolin could go through and look for someone who might have learned Unalaq's spiritbending technique. Then I would be rid of Spikes, could leave the spirit world and make sure Hyen was okay. After that, it would be easy to reveal Special Forces' secrets to the public, have the doctors and scientists of the United Republic find a cure for possession, and launch a real rescue mission for Korra and Asami. One that was well-equipped, well-prepared and well-funded.

Okay, so maybe it was longer than a long shot.

"If you say so, plan master." Bolin got to his feet, waited for me to do the same and knocked over the last piece of wall. "So, off into the great wild north?"

I picked up his backpack and slung it over my shoulder. "Yep."

He looked around. "And which way is north?"

####

As the day wore on, the grasses and flowers slowly faded back to bare rock. The mountains in front of us grew closer every time I looked, taking up more and more real estate on the horizon. I'd hoped we would be able to avoid them, but I had the sinking feeling that if we wanted to go north, we would have to do some climbing.

It was Bolin who noticed we'd already been climbing, and for quite a while.

"Is it just me, or do you feel like a pillbug in a punch bowl?" he asked as we trudged up a gentle slope.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, it just keeps getting steeper and steeper and it doesn't seem like we'll ever reach the top before sliding back."

I paused, looked back towards the portal. I could still see it, but just barely, its golden light nearly drowned out by the blue-white sky. The plain behind us looked mostly flat, but I couldn't remember the last time we'd done anything but climb.

"You want to tunnel through it?" I suggested.

Bolin rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe, if it keeps going like this. It's a lot of work though."

I nodded, hitched up the bag and we continued on. Now that Bolin had mentioned it, I was very aware of how little ground we were covering, how the hill we were climbing never seemed to end, even though it looked like the top was only a few dozen steps away. There were fewer and fewer plants too, and the hard rock was getting slippery with sand.

I looked up from my feet to see if the mountains had gotten any closer and stumbled over a tuft of grass. My back foot slipped on the sand and for a moment I was sliding back down the hill, arms flailing as I tried to find my balance.

Bolin shouted and bent the earth around me, making a solid platform under my feet and dragging me back up the hill.

"Alright. Tunnel time," Bolin said once I had caught my breath. I didn't argue.

With a jabbing, twisting motion, Bolin opened a hole in the side of the hill. It wasn't very deep, but with every jab more dirt compacted in on itself, making the opening bigger. It was slow going, but I appreciated the fact that Bolin was being careful not to let the tunnel collapse on top of us. While he worked, I lit the way. Step by step, the tunnel entrance grew smaller and smaller until it was just a pinpoint of light in the distance.

"Hey," Bolin panted. "I don't think you told me. About your date with Hyen."

"My what?" My flames sputtered as surprise overrode my drive to not leave us blind in the dark.

"The Solstice thing."

"I didn't- It wasn't a date!"

"Liaison. Romantic interlude-"

"It was a work thing."

"Okay. How was your work thing?"

"Hot," I said, wondering if I could use grumpiness to fuel my bending.

Bolin paused to give me a smug look. "Hot, you say?"

"I got burned, Bolin!" I pointed at my face for emphasis. There was still some roughness and scarring there that wouldn't fade for a while. "I already told you about it."

"So, you aren't gonna see her again?"

"See _her_? Bro, Hyen is still a guy, and even if he wasn't-" The earth shook around us, cutting me off mid-sentence. Bolin yelped and my flames went out as the tunnel floor opened up, sending us sliding down into the dark. We skidded to a stop after a few feet, both of us sitting on our asses, leaning against one another, breathing hard.

"You okay?" Bolin asked.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah. Light?"

"Right." I forced away the shock, summoned up my chi and turned on the lights.

A thousand red eyes glared back at us in the gloom. My heart pounded and I choked back a yell, but I managed to control myself and keep my fire burning. They weren't eyes, I realized, but gemstones growing out of the cave walls.

"Whoa," Bolin whispered. He got up and traced one finger along the wall. I followed suit, raising my hand up high to banish the darkness around us.

The cave was large, about the size of a two bedroom apartment, with all kinds of tunnels and passageways leading deeper into the earth. The red stones glittered everywhere, and while they might have been beautiful, I couldn't shake my initial impression of angry watching eyes. Looking up, I could see more openings, but I couldn't tell where exactly Bolin and I had fallen through.

"Can you get us out of here?" I asked, waving at the ceiling.

"Not with bending," Bolin said, rapping his knuckles against the cave wall. "This stuff's really fragile. I think we'd just fall through again."

"So, which way do we go?"

He looked away from the wall to examine the cave at large. After much deliberation and stroking of the chin, he eventually gave me a direction.

"That way." He pointed down one of the tunnels.

"Are you sure?" Between being underground and then falling down a hole, I was all turned around.

"Reasonably sure."

I wanted to ask what 'reasonably' meant in this context, but I knew it would do me no good. 'Reasonably sure' was a lot better than 'not sure at all,' which was how I felt.

"Let's go."

I led the way through the sparkling tunnel, hoping we wouldn't face any more surprises. Now that Bolin didn't have to bend us a path, we were able to have a real conversation.

"Why do you keep bugging me about Hyen?" I asked, trying my best not to sound whiny.

Bolin laughed. "Because it's funny. You get all angry and your face goes all red. And I _did_ think he was a girl at first."

I almost got angry on Hyen's behalf, but then a memory struck my and I laughed.

"What?"

"You thought Desna was a girl too."

Bolin huffed. "I did not. I just couldn't tell with the creepy lookalike twin thing they had going on. I bet they do it on purpose just to freak people out."

"Yeah, I think that's the point."

We got to joking about our inabilities to deal with other people, and before long, we reached the exit.

We stood blinking in the sunlight for a moment, taking in the grassy plain before us. It was different from the one we'd left this morning, which had been scrubby and dry and covered in flowers. This one was green as far as the eye could see, with darker smudges off in the distance that might have been the beginnings of a forest.

"Mako, look!"

I looked where Bolin was pointing. Off in the distance, little white house sat alone in the grassland. Smoke curled from the tiny chimney and I couldn't imagine a happier, more idyllic place.

I clapped him on the shoulder and we started walking. This was going to work out fine.


	11. Chapter 11

11

Despite the fact that the little house looked like a tiny speck, miles away from the mouth of the cave, it only took us a few minutes to reach it. I don't know if Bolin noticed, but it gave me a queasy, uncertain feeling, like I was in a dream and just couldn't wake up.

I pushed the feeling away though, and focused on the task at hand. After my interactions with An Zhu, I was confident we could communicate with whatever spirits we found.

I knocked on the door of the little white stone house and waited. Bolin clasped his hands behind his back and scuffed his shoe on the ground, clearly impatient.

A moment later the door opened to reveal a little old lady who looked like the epitome of little old ladies everywhere. She was short and chubby, with sparkling black eyes buried inside folds and folds of wrinkled skin. She had on a faded brown dress and an apron with flowers embroidered on it and a matching scarf tied over her head.

"Oh my! What fine young boys! Come in, come in. I was just making a pot of tea to go with the fruit pie. Come, have a slice while you tell me about yourselves." Without even giving us time to say hello, the little old lady shuffled away, her slippers slipping and her cane tapping against the smooth stone floor.

I gave Bolin a look, trying to gauge whether he thought we should trust her or not.

"C'mon, Mako. Pie. I can't say no to pie."

I relented. I was suspicious—a harmless old lady giving away pie seemed too good to be true—but we had to start somewhere in our investigation.

The old lady's house was like an extension of the old lady herself. Tiny, tidy and ancient. Bolin and I sat down on a pair of well-used chairs that creaked and threatened to fall apart under our weight, while the little old lady bustled in the next room, chattering away.

"And that nice Mr. Radikio grows them in his garden. Don't let his grumpy face get to you, he's just a big old sweetheart on the inside. But in the springtime-"

Bolin leaned over on his creaky chair. "Is she talking to _us?"_ he whispered.

I shrugged. "Do you think she's even a spirit?" I whispered back. She looked _awfully_ human, but who knew what she was hiding under that scarf and apron.

"She's like somebody's grandma," Bolin hushed, then sat up straight in his chair again as the old lady came back, a tea tray rattling precariously in her arms. I jumped up and took the tray before anything spilled and set it on the low table next to her chair.

"Such a thoughtful young man," she mumbled as she sat, and began pouring the tea.

Just like she'd promised, there was tea and slices of cold fruit pie, as well as a lacquered box full of dried up gummy candies, and a delicate glass bowl of water with a single lily floating in it. The last I guessed was just for decoration.

"I had another thoughtful young man in, just the other day," the old lady said, handing me a cup and saucer. "He didn't like my cakes at all, but he was far too considerate to tell me so. I found him later eating up all the flies in my flower garden later that afternoon, and I could hardly begrudge him that, now could I?"

She said it like it was a question, but she went on chatting away without even waiting for a response. I sipped my tea, waiting anxiously for an opportunity.

"You should try it, Mako. It's really good," Bolin said, his mouth full of pie.

Maybe it was because I had eaten nothing except dry noodles all day, but Sun and Moon, that fruit pie was one of the best things I'd ever tasted. Calories replenished and confidence restored, I found the courage to butt in on the old lady's monologue without waiting for an appropriate pause.

"This is delicious, Mrs..."

"Oh, don't thank me, thank the bees from Mr. Radikio's garden. They make the best honey," she said, and then she was off again, talking about how to care for bees.

I glanced at Bolin, trying to motion with my eyes that he should speak up, which he countered by stuffing his mouth with a gummy candy. I rolled my eyes and leaned forward, trying to get the old lady's attention.

"Ma'am? Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Immediately, the old lady dropped her talk of bees. "Oh, of course not, dear. Why, just the other day my friend Dahlia asked me-"

"Good, because my brother and I," I waved at Bolin, "could use some help. See, we're looking for the Avatar."

"Oh, the Avatar!" The old lady set her tea down on the tray so she could clap her gnarled hands together. "He came through here just the other day, looking for his girlfriend. I do hope he's alright, he was such a serious young man."

"Avatar Aang?" I asked, confused.

"Aang? No, that wasn't it." For the first time since our arrival, the little old lady paused, but I didn't dare interject.

"Kuruk! That was his name."

"Kuruk?" I repeated, the name lost on me.

"The one before Kyoshi," Bolin supplied.

"But that was like, more than four hundred years ago," I said, panic rising in my chest.

Ever since entering the spirit world, my conversation with Tenzin about the nature of time in the two worlds had never been far from my mind. And now the little old lady was saying she'd seen Avatar Kuruk a few days ago? If a few days here was the same as nearly half a millennium in our world... I couldn't do the math in my head, but I knew we had to get out of there. For every minute that passed, hours or even days were slipping by. Bolin would lose his job, Hyen would get reassigned to another case, or get himself in trouble with the possessed or Special Forces or both.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet, headed for the door. Thunder crashed outside and Bolin grabbed my arm.

"Mako!"

I caught where he was looking. Not out the window at the sudden storm, but at the little old lady. She had changed. She was taller, much taller, and the lines in her face were deeper, darker, more like cracks than laugh lines. Her dress had turned black and there was an awareness and strength in her voice that hadn't been there before.

"How rude! I invite you into my house, and this is what you do to thank me?"

I yanked Bolin from his chair, pulled him to the exit.

"For years I've kept the Mutable Plains in peace! Out! Get out of here!"

I was already through the door by the time she finished her sentence, dragging Bolin behind me. Rain lashed at us sideways and thunder roared not too far away. Behind us I could see the cute little cottage had transformed into a ruined fort, with crumbling walls and a menacing tower that looked out over the plains.

"Now where?" I shouted over the wind and thunder.

"The trees!" Bolin shouted.

We ran for it. Down a gully, across a stream and over a low stone wall into the shelter of the trees.

"What was that?" Bolin said before we had finished catching our breath. "One minute she's giving us free tea and snacks, and the next..." he snapped his fingers. "Nutso! You don't think she changed the weather, do you?"

"I really don't know." I ran my hands through my hair, trying to squeeze the water out. We were still getting dripped on, and overhead the trees shook and groaned in the wind, but we were definitely safer and drier here than out in the open. "Did you catch what she said, at the very end there?" I asked.

"No, I was a little distracted," Bolin said. "You know, with the thunder and lightning and the _get out of my house!"_

"She called this place the Mutable Plains."

"Mute, like quiet?"

I shook my head. "No, like changeable." I peered between the trees, watching the fields we had just left.

"The Changeable Plains. Yeah, that makes sense."

"No, it doesn't," I said, shaking a little now from the cold and the wet. "None of this makes sense. Thunder storms don't just appear out of nowhere and cottages don't turn into castles, even in a place called Mutable." I folded my arms across my chest for warmth, only to be reminded of the cold metal snake still wrapped around me.

"Bro," Bolin said, "we're in the spirit world. There's _gonna_ be all kinds of wacky spirit magic shenanigans going on. We're just going to have to roll with it."

For an answer, I just groaned. No wonder Korra and Asami hadn't come back yet. Between the time weirdness and the general craziness of this place, they must have gotten lost ages ago.

"So, we had a couple setbacks. But look at it like this. Neither of us has gotten hurt, and we only just started looking. There's gotta be some spirit that's willing to help us. Like that pear thing."

"Thanks, Bo." I gave him a smile. I was still frustrated and scared of this place, but he was right. We had no right to give up so soon—not that giving up was even an option.

"Yep. Good old Bolin. Always saves the day. Now, let's say you make a fire and we wait for the rain to stop?"

I looked at the trees—big ancient leafy things that looked like they'd been there for millennia.

"No. You remember the story Korra's dad told us, about destroying that forest? I'm gonna bet burning anything in a spirit forest is a good way to get the spirits mad at us."

"Maybe just a little fire?" Bolin cupped his hands in front of him, pretending to firebend.

I shook my head. I was cold—not so cold I couldn't bend—but I didn't want to risk making anything mad after what had happened with the old lady. "Let's keep walking." I looked up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun so I could tell which way was was north, but between the branches and the clouds, it could have been anywhere.

Bolin griped until he must have realized I didn't find his complaints amusing, after which we walked through the dripping forest in silence. I wasn't so cold now that we were moving and the rain had stopped, but I was getting more and more frustrated at our meaningless progress. It was just like my trip with Hyen into the quarantine: wandering around, _hoping_ we would run into someone useful. I wondered again if he was okay.

For the rest of the day Bolin and I wandered through the forest. We found a path after a little while, and ran across a few plant spirits that could talk, but weren't especially helpful.

"How do you even know she _wants_ to be found?" One particularly pugnacious daisy asked us, its little leaf arms curled up into fists.

Night fell and Bolin and I buried ourselves under a pile of dry leaves. It wasn't very comfortable, and for me at least it brought back memories of our time on the streets, but we did eventually sleep.

I woke up early the next morning just as the sun rose, stiff and sore and cold. I shook Bolin awake and we went on walking.

The path I found out was taking us east, not north, but I would rather follow a path going the wrong way than get utterly lost wandering through the trees. Not that we _weren't_ lost at the moment—I had no clue how to get back to the Republic City portal and neither did Bolin. We only broached the topic once, and Spikes gave me a very clear warning that we shouldn't even _talk_ about going back until we'd found Korra.

As we walked, the forest changed. The trees grew taller and taller, and the undergrowth faded away, until it almost felt like we were walking through some massive temple.

"What if that flower yesterday was right?" Bolin asked after a failed attempt to talk with a fungus spirit that turned out to be a mundane mushroom.

"The one that said maybe Korra doesn't want to be found?"

"Yeah, that one. Jinora's been looking for her, but she hasn't had any luck. I know you think it's because she's lost, but what if she and Asami are just fooling around, having a good time?"

"Maybe," I said, thinking again of the time differences. "So, what do you think? Look for someplace that'd be a good vacation spot?"

"White sandy beaches, grass skirts... There's gotta be a place like that here. I mean, they exist in the real world, so they have to here too, right?"

"We'll ask the next spirit."

####

"Spirits are stupid!" I shouted, tearing at my hair. It was late in the day and we were still in the forest—now dry and hilly, populated by stunted pine trees.

"Uh, Mako..."

I kicked at a tree root. "If they're not complete idiots, then they act like it's their job to spout cryptic bull-pig nonsense. Like that mouse thing. _Look in to look out_. What is that supposed to mean? And that bug with the hat! Of course I know you have to go downhill to get to the beach, but we just came from down there, and I _know_ there's nothing but more trees that way!"

I continued to vent, pacing back and forth on the trail.

"Mako, stop!" A rock pinged off my head, hurting just enough to interrupt my train of thought. I stopped dead in my tracks as I realized what was going on. In the past minute or so, the woods had grown dark, and not in the sense that the sun was hiding behind a cloud. The trees themselves had changed color and had drawn closer together, the sun blotted out by branches like fierce, grasping claws.

A few steps down the trail, Bolin stood in a ray of sunshine, the trees around him frail-looking and thin.

"Look." He gestured at the trees. "You're the one who's doing this. Well, I guess we both are, but you're the one who keeps getting angry all the time, and when you do, everything else gets angry too."

For a split second I wanted to argue with him, but the evidence behind his words was staring me in the face. His patch of woods was sunny and calm, if tired, while mine was dark, menacing and angry.

I stood there on the trail, the anger draining away, replaced by stunned embarrassment. Had the thunderstorm on the plains been my fault? Had I made Bolin and I fall down that hole underground? How were we ever supposed to get anywhere if our surroundings changed with whatever random thoughts and feelings we had moment to moment?

I sat down and Bolin came and sat next to me.

"Sorry I hit you with a rock."

I rubbed at the spot where he'd hit me. "It's okay," I said, determined not to get mad _or_ laugh about it.

"I know you can do this. You used to get angry over _everything_. But now it's been ages since you set anything on fire. I mean, set anything on fire because you were mad, not because you were cold or defending yourself or-"

"Bo. I get it." I rubbed my face, feeling the scruff there under the dirt and grease. "Lemme sit for a minute."

Bolin pursed his lips, but he nodded, willing to wait for me. I breathed, staring at the ground in front of me, searching for a familiar emptiness. Not because I wanted to summon up lightning right now, but because that cold, detached feeling was as close as I could get to no emotions at all.

So, I focused on my breathing and on the fact that I was insignificant. The universe was huge and full of energy and I was the merest of specks, wildly tossed around by the currents because I was too proud to let them flow through me instead. I was nothing. Not even a speck.

I looked up. The trees were gone, leaving us alone on a bare, brown hilltop, the sun beating down. Bolin sat next to me, weaving a pebble between his fingers, his eyes glazed.

"Where do we go from here?" I asked, my voice flat and numb.

Bolin dropped his pebble, then picked it up again. "Walking north probably isn't going to work. Maybe _feeling_ north?"

I didn't answer, knowing that neither of us knew what north "felt" like. But he was on the right track. If the physical act of walking wasn't going to get us anywhere, maybe the feeling of moving forward would. But to have that feeling, we needed direction, a goal.

No, that wasn't right. We _had_ goals, plenty of them. Find Korra and Asami, find the northern portal, find a spirit who could help us.

"Maybe they don't want to be found," I said, grasping at an idea that I still hadn't wrapped my head around. "If places are emotions, and they entered the portal because they wanted to escape..."

"That's where they'd end up," Bolin said, finishing my thought. "In an escaping place! And that's why no one can find them!"

"Right. Because if we're looking for them we have to be feeling the feeling of _wanting to find someone—_ if that even _is_ an emotion—we literally _can't_ get to a place associated with the feeling of wanting not to be found."

I don't know if it was from my excitement or Bolin's but just in the past few seconds, grass had sprung up in a little circle around us, so green and bright I wouldn't have thought it was real just looking at it.

"So," Bolin said a grin spreading across his face, "all we have to do is feel like not wanting to be found, and then we'll find them. So, all we really need is... the power... of _acting._ " He placed a fist over his heart and looked towards the sky.

I frowned, then reached for the emptiness again, trying to fend off any strong emotions, negative or positive. Something in the back of my mind told me this probably wasn't healthy, spiritually speaking, but for now, I was afraid of the alternative.

"I don't think I can just make myself feel like not wanting to be found," I said. "Or trick the spirit world into thinking that's how I'm feeling." _Does the spirit world even_ think _?_ I wondered to myself. _How does it know what I'm feeling?_

"Acting isn't about tricking people, it's about forgetting who you are and being someone else for a little while," Bolin said, like he thought this was the most obvious thing ever.

"I don't think I can do that either."

Bolin sighed, rested his head on his fist. "So, if where we go depends on how we feel, and we can't really control how we feel, does that mean we're stuck?"

"I don't think so," I said after a moment's consideration. "Everyone can control their emotions. It's just hard, and the feeling of _not wanting to be found_ is really specific, not like being happy or angry or whatever. But," I said, allowing myself to smile just a little, "I remember working for Wu, and there were plenty of times I managed to slip away and I didn't want to be found."

"Oh yeah?" Bolin said, a little light coming on in his eyes. "Like when?"

"Well, one time I was supposed to take him shopping for hair treatment, and I pretended I had eaten some bad oysters. You know, _ooh, my stomach. I can't hold it in."_ I held my stomach as though in pain.

"And?"

"I read a whole magazine in Wu's bathroom while he figured out how to work the phone and call his doctor to make sure he wasn't sick as well."

Bolin laughed at that way harder than I'd expected, wiping his eyes and holding a hand to his side. "You know, that reminds me of when I was dating Eska..."

We kept on swapping stories for a good couple of hours, and bit by bit, spirits came creeping in close. Most of them stayed well back, but some sat with us, and they hung on our every word, laughing at the funny parts, gasping at the scary parts and asking for more every time a story ended.

Eventually it got dark, and we found ourselves sitting on cushions around a campfire, eating rice and fried eggs out of chipped ceramic bowls. I wasn't sure where the bowls or the cushions or any of it had come from, but it was nice, and even pleasant once I got over the fact that I was sitting next to a giant bipedal lizard.

"So, you are trying to find the Avatar," the lizard said, tilting its head to look at me with one unsettling eye, while Bolin took a turn in the storytelling spotlight.

"Yes," I said, and explained what Bolin had figured out about feelings and the spirit world.

"And you are thinking stories of hiding and escaping and of pleasant times will help you find her?" the lizard asked.

"It was just a thought," I said, a little defensive. "I didn't know if it would work."

"It was a good idea, but you did not get what you were looking for. Instead of escape, you found comradarie and solidarity. You have made new friends, but you have not found the old."

I would hesitate to call the random spirits that had found us _friends_ , but I wasn't going to argue. "Do you know what we should do?" I asked.

The lizard flicked its tongue and got itself another egg from the pan before it answered. "You should not presume to know how others feel." It tapped its head and then its chest with one long, clawed finger. "Accept that what is up here is never wholly correct, and what is in here is always, in some way, right."

I nodded. Despite the fact that we were veering down the path of poetic nonsense, this was by far the most enlightening conversation I'd had with a spirit yet, and I took it to mean that I couldn't completely trust the things I thought I knew. Troubling, but definitely good to know.

"Thank you," I said. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Many things. But above all else, remember your friends, even the ones who are not here, because they are all important."

I blinked, trying to read between the lines of the lizard's statement while I formulated my next question, but somehow in that moment, hours had passed. Bolin lay on his back next to the embers of the fire, his arms wrapped around a spirit dog on his chest. Other spirits dozed nearby, and overhead a single cloud passed in front of the moon.

I got out my logbook to note the lizard's words next to those of all the other spirits we'd questioned, and a thin slip of rice paper fell out from between the pages. I unfolded it and held it up to the moonlight to read the words written on it.

 _Everything is connected._

As I examined the message, the cloud moved away from the moon and I found I could see through the thin paper. The words had been printed twice, once on the front and once on the back. I flipped it around and squinted, making sure I was reading it right.

"Huh."

I folded the note and slipped it back inside the book, wondering if it was just a trick of the dim light that made the overlapping characters look like a figure standing on a tower.

* * *

 _A/N: A little artistic license perhaps with the optical illusion with the characters on the note, but I figure everything's pretty trippy in the spirit world, so it doesn't matter a heck of a lot :)_


	12. Chapter 12

_AN: What's this? An extra update? I'm on winter break, so why not_ ‽

* * *

12

By morning the spirits had gone, though they had left a few camping things behind for me and Bolin. I got the fire going again and made us some breakfast while Bolin went through the rest of the stuff—blankets, water, pots and pans.

"I think I know what we need to do," I said as we ate. I must have caught Spikes' interest, as it flexed against me, rippling under my shirt. Bolin looked at me and grimaced. I subtly shook my head, asking him silently not to comment.

"What's your idea?" he asked.

"I think I need to meditate, but it has to be in the right spot."

"Okay, sure. That kinda worked yesterday. But where? The hilltop of happiness? The marsh of madness? Oh! I know. The fjords of friendship."

"No, a tower. One of the spirits was trying to tell me something." I got out my logbook and showed Bolin the note.

He read it and frowned. "This doesn't say 'meditate on top of a tower,' it says 'everything is connected.' Twice." He showed me the front and back of the paper to make sure I knew that.

I took back the note. "I know. But think about it. Everything _is_ connected. All of everything is just energy and matter, and when you break it down small enough, there's not really any difference between you or me or that rock you're sitting on." I had read that in one of Asami's science magazines during our trip to Ba Sing Se.

"So," I continued, "since I know where I am, I _should_ know where everything else is, because we're all essentially the same stuff, right?"

Bolin looked up from the blanket he was trying to squeeze into his backpack. "Did that lizard give you cactus juice last night?"

"I'm serious!"

"Maybe, but you're saying that in order to find Korra and Asami, you need to learn spirit magic. Controlling your emotions so the landscape doesn't attack us is one thing, but this..." He went back to packing his bag. "I'll help if you think it's what you need to do, but only because I'm just as lost as you are, and I would _kind of_ like to find Korra and Asami before Frost Fire refuses to hire me back or you get constric-" He cut himself off. "Constipated. From all this rice and dry insta-noodles."

It was just about the least heartfelt vote of confidence I'd ever heard, and I was left not knowing what to say. I'd tricked him into coming here, and while my lie hadn't been too far from the truth, Bolin hadn't asked for any of this. He was mad at me, but he was trying to work with me, and I could only hope he wouldn't stay mad after we got home.

I helped clean up the campsite and the two of us stood by the remains of the fire, looking at the dusty hills.

"Any ideas?" Bolin asked.

"Could you... build me a tower?" I didn't know what the significance of the tower was, but I was sure I'd seen it for a reason.

"Yeah, but only if you want a small tower that'll fall down in a couple minutes." He picked up a rock and tore it apart with his fingers. "Look at this stuff. It's all crumbly."

I murmured an agreement and looked further down the path. It followed the top of the ridge for a few hundred yards, then dipped out of sight. A lone tree overlooked the edge of the bluff, bent over from the wind. I figured that was as good a sign as any.

When we reached it, I realized it wasn't bent over from the wind, but the from weight of hundreds of green pears.

"Definitely a sign," I said, looking up at the branches.

"Can we eat them, or are they like the babies of that spirit you met in the quarantine?"

I shrugged and waited while Bolin politely asked the tree if he could eat the fruit, then, when it didn't respond, stuffed as many as would fit into his bag and pockets.

We continued down the hillside, following the path as it zig-zagged. After a mile or so, it rounded a corner, putting us in view of a green valley and a banana-shaped lake. And in the middle of the banana, an island with a tower poking up between the trees. It wasn't very tall, maybe two or three stories, made of plain brown stone.

"Welp," Bolin said. "That's a tower." He sounded unsurprised. "Do spirits build towers?"

"I guess they must. There has to be a spirit of architecture out there somewhere."

"Since when are you so spiritually inclined anyway?" Bolin asked as we started our descent towards the lake.

"I don't think I am. If I was, why would half of the spirits I talk to act like they wanna fight me, and the other half leave me indirect beat-around-the-bush messages? I know they can be straightforward if they want to be." Case in point: An Zhu.

"Yeah, but at least they _talk_ to you. For me, it's all just, _muh, mumu-mu mah._ "

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? All of them?"

"No, not all of them. But for a lot of them, I can't understand what they're saying. It's weird. I _know_ they're talking to you, because you talk back, but..."

I rubbed at the stubble growing on my chin, trying to make sense of it. "Huh." It had seemed to me that any spirit that had a mouth could talk, even if they didn't say anything worthwhile.

"Maybe because I've been meditating more lately?" I suggested. Maybe all that time breathing in incense at Akoza's had somehow boosted my spiritual connectedness.

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe," Bolin said, sounding relieved.

We skidded down the final few feet of the slope, followed the path through a little stand of trees and came to a stop by the side of the lake.

"What do you think? Can you launch us across?" I asked. The gap between the shore and the island wasn't very big, twenty or thirty feet tops.

"How about a bridge instead? The water looks pretty shallow."

I agreed and stepped back to let Bolin do his thing.

####

"Bo, that stinks." I pinched my nose, looking out at the narrow, muddy walkway Bolin had raised up from the lakefloor.

"What, did you think there'd be dry stone under the water?"

"I didn't think it'd smell like death."

"Well, sor-ry. If you want to swim, you can swim."

I rolled my eyes. "No. Let's go." I took one tentative step and then another, sinking up to my knees in the rotten mud, Bolin squelching behind me. I _would_ have swam, if I didn't have thirty or forty pounds of rusty snake spirit wrapped around me.

We crossed over to the island and Bolin let his stinking creation sink back into the muck. I kicked off my spats and shoes and gave them a rinse in the lake while Bolin bent the mud off of himself.

"Tower?" Bolin asked.

"Tower."

We cut through the trees and in only a matter of minutes, found ourselves standing on paved ground, looking up at the tower. Now that I was close, I wasn't even sure if it was worth calling it tower. There was no inside to it, just a stair that wrapped around the outside, cut into the stone. A few short pillars crowned the top of the tower, but aside from that, it was plain and bare.

We climbed up to the flat top of the tower and enjoyed the view for a moment before I sat down near the edge, crossed my legs and rested my hands on my knees. I felt Bolin sit next to me.

After a minute or two, he sighed.

"I'm worse than Korra at this stuff."

"You don't have to meditate if you don't want. Just give me a couple hours. If it hasn't worked by then, you have full 'I told you so' rights."

"I never said this wasn't going to work!"

I opened one eye and peered at him without turning my head, saying nothing.

"I might have implied, or insinuated, but I never _said..._ "

"Two hours?"

"Okay, two hours." He got up and went back down to the base of the tower. I didn't know if two hours was really enough time for me to connect with the oneness of the universe and use that to locate Korra, but at least it was long enough for my shoes and spats to dry out.

I breathed and sank into emptiness, feeling the sun on the back of my neck and the hard stone beneath me. It was difficult, and random thoughts darted through my head, some of them relevant to what was going on—worries about Spikes and Bolin and the possessed humans—but most had nothing to do with anything—bits of jingles I'd heard on the radio, a joke I didn't remember the punchline to, the eternal question of whether I should take my bike in for a tune up, or try to do maintenance myself.

On each inhale, I noticed the fact that I was thinking these thoughts, and on each exhale, I tried to let them go. As the minutes slipped by, it got easier. The random thoughts flickered only briefly and faded easily, leaving only me and the sun and the lake-scented air.

 _Everything is connected._

That thought I held onto, but only loosely. I didn't examine it, I didn't try to figure out why it was true or how it applied to me, I just let it sit there, alongside the air and the sun.

I don't know how long I stayed there for, but I sat and I breathed and I thought my one thought until I could no longer feel the sun on the back of my neck or the hard stone beneath me, or smell the sweet and stagnant lake air. There was only me, the muscles in my back keeping me up, my hands resting on my knees, and my thought.

 _Everything is connected._

 _Everything is..._

I opened my eyes.

 _yellow?_

I wasn't on the tower anymore. I was somewhere else entirely, somewhere high, high above a golden sea.

I stood, turned around to see a monochrome city laid out before me in shades of yellow and gray, the buildings drab and dead, while the parks were bright and alive. I stared for far too long before I realized that this wasn't just _a_ city, it was _my_ city.

If I hadn't been feeling the residual calm from my meditation, I probably would have been freaking out. I let the calm fade, let myself start to think again.

Okay. I was in the spirit world version Republic City. That made sense. I was connected to the city, and since I'd been meditating on connectedness, this was where I had ended up.

Only, I'd never actually left the tower. Even in the spirit world, I was pretty sure you at least had to take a few token steps to get from A to B. And besides, wouldn't we have entered the spirit world version of the city by stepping through the portal? In the physical world, the city surrounded the portal, therefore, _if_ a spirit world version existed, then it also had to surround the portal on the spirit world side. Right?

I shaded my eyes, looking for the portal, then blinked, looked at my hands. I was transparent.

"Wuh!?" I let out a muted yelp and began prodding at myself, grabbing my face, my arms, my clothes, making sure I was still solid and real. I was. I was okay, I could feel my own body and nothing hurt. In fact, I felt great. Light. I checked my chest. Spikes was gone.

I fell to my knees, laughing from relief.

I was in the material world. That was the only explanation. I'd left my physical body behind and somehow my spirit had slipped through some crack in the boundary. I grinned. This was perfect, better than anything I'd planned or hoped for. I could get my information to the force and make sure Hyen was okay, here and now and in person, not over the telephone from some remote Water Tribe village. Well, maybe not _technically_ in person, but close enough.

As I sat there congratulating myself, I took in my immediate surroundings for the first time. Just like I had been in the spirit world, here too I was on top of a tower. This one was much, much taller however and had a sloping, tiled roof and a spire that disguised a bunch of radio broadcasting equipment as something more aesthetically pleasing. I was on top of the Air Temple.

"How do I get down?"

I looked for a hatch or a door, knowing I wouldn't find one. The temple had been built with airbenders in mind, who had no need for stairs.

I crept to the edge of the roof and looked down. I could see people far below, dark specks against the gray pavement.

"Hello!" I shouted and waved. No one answered—they had to be too far away. I considered jumping for a brief moment, but quickly decided against it. Even though a lot of spirits could fly without obvious means of keeping themselves in the air, I wasn't going to try it.

I did have another way of getting people's attention without shouting though. I took a step away from the edge, focused on my drive and swung my right arm forward with an open palm.

"Huah!"

Nothing happened.

I tried again with my other arm, but still nothing happened. It was, in all honesty, scary. Excepting the times I'd been chi-blocked, I'd always had my bending. It was something safe and secure, a part of me, and being without it was like going blind or losing a limb.

But, I remembered the few times I'd seen Korra cross into the spirit world, and how she had mentioned not having her bending on the other side. This had to be like that, but I still felt naked and cold.

I folded my arms across my chest, thinking about the irony of the situation. After all the help I'd gotten from the spirits in getting me to the right spot and the right time and the right idea to let me cross over, I was now even more trapped than I had been in the spirit world. I didn't even know how I was supposed to get back.

I shouted again for the heck of it, then went back to gazing at the city. In the distance I could just make out the spirit portal—a line of glowing gold against the yellow sky. What would happen if I walked through the portal like this? Would I get automatically zapped back into my body, or would I have to find myself, literally? Would it be possible to look at myself from the outside? That would be a weird experience.

As I entertained these idle thoughts, a flash of blue caught my eye. I squinted and found it again amongst the yellow, a tiny speck in the sky growing larger. I waited, watching, and Jinora landed next to me in a rush of air I couldn't quite feel.

"Mako?"

"Jinora!" I reached out to hug the frail girl, but my arms passed right through her. I took a step back, hand to my mouth in shock. That was even more frightening than not having my bending.

Jinora laughed. "It's okay! You don't have your body, so you can't touch anything. How did you get here anyway? I didn't know you could project your spirit too."

I don't think I'd ever seen her so excited before.

"Ah," I said, at a loss for words. "This is new. How did you find me?"

"I felt your presence," Jinora said, like that in itself was some simple thing that didn't raise a hundred other questions.

"Oh," I said.

"Sit down, tell me how you figured it out!" Jinora said, sitting down on the rooftop herself. She braced her heels in the gutter and propped herself up on her elbows, her staff leaning against her.

I sat, copying her posture.

"Dad said you were on a case, looking for a spirit that was kidnapping kids, and that you were going to go into the wilds, but that was a while ago. What happened? Did you find the spirit? Is that why you learned projection?"

"I guess so? Only, I'm in the spirit world right now. Or at least my body is." Saying it out loud made me realize just how unbelievable this was. Literally. If it hadn't happened to me personally, I don't think I would have believed it.

Jinora rolled her head back to look at me, mouth open. "Tell me everything," she ordered, and I obliged.

"So, can you help me get to the police station?" I asked once I was finished with my tale and had answered a few of Jinora's questions about the Balcony Snatcher, the possessed, and me and Bolin's adventure in the spirit world.

"I think so. Just let me get somewhere safe where I can meditate." With a gust of air, she pushed herself into a standing position, tapped her staff against the tiles to open it up, and launched herself off the roof.

I watched as she spiraled to the ground and went inside. A few moments later, she flickered into existence on the roof again, this time without her staff. Or, presumably, her body. She looked more real now, less like a blue spark trying to shine through yellow glass. She was bright, vibrant, her tattoos standing out in neon blue, and the sickly pallor gone from her face.

"Focus on my energy." She grabbed my hand.

I gasped in shock. I could feel it. In a way, it was like my own chi, that burning energy that lived inside me. But this was outside me, and it didn't burn. It floated, it drifted and flowed and whispered, and was an order of magnitude stronger than anything I'd ever felt outside lightning. It was different and unnatural. For a moment I had a vision of Jinora as a slow-moving whirlwind, a diffuse yet massive thing that stretched for miles. I blinked and the vision passed, and I couldn't tell if it had been real, or just my brain trying to make sense of this new and different way of experiencing the world.

How was I even thinking at all? My brain was in a whole different plane of reality.

"I am so confused."

Jinora squeezed my hand between hers. "Can you feel it?"

I pulled my hand away, rubbed at it with my other hand. "I can, but..."

"Just focus on that. We're going to the police station." She grabbed my hand again, and for the briefest moment, nothing existed. Then we were down on the ground, on the plaza in front of the temple.

"Two more jumps," Jinora said.

I opened my mouth to protest, to ask what had just happened, but before I could even begin to form the words, the plaza disappeared, replaced by the boardwalk on the western tip of the peninsula. Half a moment later, that too vanished and was replaced by the big open square in front of the police headquarters.

I was disoriented to say the least.

"How?" I gasped. I braced my hands against my knees. I felt ragged around the edges, like if I pulled at my skin, it would come off.

Jinora thought for a second, a crease forming between her eyebrows. "Think of yourself as a radio wave. As a spirit, you don't have to carry your body around, so you can broadcast yourself wherever you want to go."

I straightened up. "Huh." That actually made sense. Radio waves were kind of like a special kind of invisible light that carried information. And if I didn't have my real physical body, what was left? Light and information and spiritual energy. I still didn't know how to do it myself, but at least it was something I could more or less wrap my head around, not like the poetic nonsense spirits tended to spout.

"Thanks," I said, and started leading the way across the square. Jinora followed at my side, floating above the ground so we were the same height.

"Do you really think your partner will be able to help all those poor people?" she asked, meaning the possessed.

"Between Hyen and Bei Fong? They'll know what to do."

"What about the spirit that's been kidnapping children? Have you been able to look for it?"

"No, not really," I said. "The spirit world is confusing. We keep getting lost."

Jinora nodded. "I wish you could have told me you were going through the portal, so I would have known to look for you! You haven't heard anything about Korra and Asami since you've been there, have you?"

"No, but it's only been a couple days, and I still don't understand that place at all." Upon hearing the word _days_ come out of my own mouth, I tensed, thinking again of the time differences. "What day is it, anyway?"

"The first day of dàshu."

I did some math in my head. Raiko had given us permission to enter the quarantine on the sixth day of xiaoshu, which meant I'd been away for... Ten days? Or would it be nine this year? Either way, I wasn't sure I could account for all that time.

"Remind me," I said, as Jinora pulled me bodily (spiritually?) through the closed HQ door, "to ask you if you can explain to me how time works in the spirit world."

"I can try," she said, sounding none too certain.

I grunted and led the way up to Missing Persons. Heads turned and jaws dropped as we passed. I was going to have to deal with nosy questions later, but I couldn't worry about that now. I had a mission.

The door to the Missing Persons office was closed, and again Jinora pulled me through it. As one, six heads turned to face me and Jinora. Detectives Vani, Umida and Wira, along with a guy from forensics and a couple other staffers I didn't recognize.

"Where's Hyen?"

None of them answered me.

"Liu," Vani hissed. "Call Special Forces." When the staffer standing at her desk failed to move immediately, she bopped him on the head with an open palm. "Liu! Phone!"

The staffer jumped at the blow and scrambled for the phone as Vani edged around her desk, her face and posture screaming hostility. "What do you seek, spirit?"

Jinora pursed her lips. "I'm not a spirit, or a ghost," she said, sounding exasperated. She turned to me. "I don't think your friend is here. Let's go talk with Lin."

She grabbed my hand and a split second later we were in Bei Fong's office. Thank the spirits the Chief wasn't doing anything important or embarrassing, just reading a report with her forehead propped against her hand.

Bei Fong sat up with a start. "Jinora! What's wrong? What happened?" Before either of us could begin to explain, Bei Fong was on her feet, ready for a fight.

"Nothing! I brought Mako so he could talk with you." She waved at me and I stepped forward.

"Chief, I-"

"Mako? You found him?" Bei Fong put a hand on her desk and the fight seemed to drain out of her. She frowned. "He's here?"

Jinora looked at me. "I don't think they can see you."

"What?" Bei Fong and I said at the same time.

Jinora breathed out a little puff of air—almost a laugh—and spoke to me. "You just don't have a strong enough presence. I could give you some pointers, but I don't know if it'd really work since you're coming from the spirit world."

"Maybe later," I said, as Bei Fong shouted, "Spirit world?"

Jinora turned to answer Bei Fong. "He says he got sent there-"

I interrupted her before she got absorbed in retelling my story. "Ask her where Hyen is."

"-by some humans he found in the wilds... But first he's asking where Hyun-"

"Hy _en._ "

"Where Hyen is."

During this exchange, Bei Fong sagged against her desk, then lowered herself back into her chair, and was now massaging her temples with one hand. It struck me just how normal she was—not this indomitable, stony force everyone held her up to be.

"Is he here now? Is he okay?" Bei Fong asked.

"He's here in spirit, and I think he's okay."

Bei Fong dragged her hand down her face and sighed. "I hope he realizes all the trouble he's put us through."

" _You've_ had trouble?" I was offended. I'd been attacked by a dark spirit, beaten up, locked in a library and forced to wander a crazy and dangerous world with only Bolin for protection and company.

Jinora repeated it for me, but without my indignation.

Bei Fong rolled her eyes and started listing grievances, counting on her fingers. "Search and rescue efforts for Mako and Bolin. Hospital bills for Chungsoo, Kung and Hyen. A force-wide review of spirit safety protocols. Security meetings with Raiko, increased border patrols, _two_ press conferences, _and..._ " She paused to breathe. " _I_ had to speak with his grandmother."

I winced. I hadn't been directly responsible for all of those things, but...

"Sorry, Chief," I said to the floor.

Jinora relayed the message and the three of us sat in heavy silence for a moment.

"He still here?" Bei Fong asked.

Jinora nodded.

"Alright, Detective. Deliver your report," she said, addressing a blank patch of wall.

"Jinora, can you tell her what I told you?" That guilt trip had really taken it out of me. I wanted to sit down, but the chairs were pushed into the desk and I couldn't move them. I couldn't even lean against the wall properly as my shoulder sank into it. I wondered for a second what was preventing me from sinking through the floor, but quickly banished the thought. Thinking about it might make it happen.

Bei Fong asked some questions—a lot more than Jinora had—about our investigation in the spirit wilds, but when we got to the part about the possessed humans, she froze, looking sick.

"Spirits," she breathed. She sank back into the chair, looking like she'd aged ten years in as many seconds.

"Ask her what she wants us to do," I told Jinora.

"I have to think about this," Bei Fong said. "If Special Forces has been keeping it quiet..." There was a pause, then she looked at Jinora. "Get your father. Tell him what's happened and let him know I'm coming to see him." She stood, opened up her wardrobe and got out her coat with a wave of her hand. "Will you be able to find Mako again?"

"I think so."

"Good. Don't speak of this to anyone. Meet me at the temple in an hour." She marched for the door.

"Wait!" I shouted. "Where's Hyen?"

Jinora relayed my question and Bei Fong paused before bursting out into the hall.

"Haijing Hospital."

I grabbed Jinora by the hand. "Take me there."

She glanced at the clock on the wall, then closed her eyes. There was a jolt and a moment of darkness, and Jinora and I were just outside the big, modern hospital overlooking the bay.

"You can't sense people's energy, can you?" Jinora asked me.

"Yours, when you touched my hand."

Jinora nodded. "Then you're just going to have to look for your friend the old fashioned way. I need to tell my dad what happened, but I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks."

She smiled, and her projection faded.

I slipped in through the main entrance and wandered the halls for a while. As far as I could tell, I was basically a ghost. No one could see or hear me, I didn't have my bending, and I couldn't touch or move anything. This made what should have been a simple task difficult and tedious.

After a fair bit of searching, I found Hyen in a hospital bed in a semi-private room, fidgeting and flipping through a magazine. Tall paper screens created the illusion of privacy, but still let fresh air from the open window move around the room. Hyen was wearing a plain white robe and he had his hair tied back in a loose tail, which he pulled at and messed with occasionally. Besides the anxious behavior, the only indication that anything was wrong was the massive purple bruise that reached from shoulder to wrist and a crutch propped against the wall.

I leaned against the screen and watched Hyen read, wondering if I was being too creepy, and should just wait in the hall for Jinora to come find me again.

"I take it you can't see me either," I said.

Hyen sat up and looked around. For a second I let my hopes up, only to realize it wasn't me that had caught his interest.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he gingerly got out of the bed. One leg was fully encased in a plaster cast, toes sticking out the very end. He grabbed the crutch and tucked it under his bruised arm, then hobbled to the edge of the bed to peer around the screens.

Another patient caught his eye. Hyen put a finger to his lips and made a shushing sound. The other patient rolled her eyes and went back to her own reading.

I watched, bemused, as Hyen limped back to the bedside table, retrieved a small paper box with a komodo rhino on the front and went to the open window. He patted himself down, looking for something.

"Ah-hah." He got out a lighter, lit a cigarette from the box and leaned against the window frame, sighing.

I snorted.

"I still don't get why you like those things," I told him. "They smell terrible and they cost like twenty yuans a box."

Hyen blew smoke out the window, eyes closed in peaceful relaxation.

"Well. I'm glad you're okay. If that spirit had got you, I dunno what I..." I coughed, glad Hyen couldn't hear me being all sappy. "I mean..." I didn't know what I meant, so I just let the words hang there, unheard.

Hyen puffed on the cigarette until it was too short to hold, then flicked the butt out the window. He stayed there for a while, idly tapping the paper box against the window frame, brow furrowed.

"Lemme guess. The Snatcher case? Sorry I derailed that investigation. I-"

Hyen sighed. "Damn it, Mako," he said, his voice uncharacteristically smooth. Not his voice.

"Huh?"

"Wake up. Please."

There was a wrenching feeling in my gut, the most real and visceral thing I'd felt since leaving the spirit world. My breath hitched in my chest and the peaceful yellow world around me turned into a world of flames.

The hospital room and the ocean view were gone, replaced by a squat stone tower surrounded by fire under an ash-filled sky.

* * *

 _AN: On Calendars and Money_

 _Calendars: In this chapter, we've got Mako trying to figure out how long he's been away from home, which raises the question of what kind of calendar do people use in the UR? I've decided to go with the C_ _hinese solar terms, since a primarily solar calendar makes the most sense for the ex-Fire Nation colonies. Dàshu 1 should be roughly equivalent to July 22/23, or about a month after the solstice!_

 _Money: The show doesn't give a whole lot of exact prices for things, so after trying and failing to look up the conversion of US dollars to Chinese yuans in the 1920's (it turns out China was having some pretty major currency issues at the time) I'm just going to use the present-day exchange rates and the 1920's prices for things. So, if a pack of cigarettes in 1920 cost $0.20 USD, 90 years of inflation brings the price up to ~$2.40, which in CNY is about 17 yuans. Which then got rounded up to 20 because Mako doesn't smoke and doesn't know how much a pack of cigs would cost._

 _Thanks for reading!_


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: A little bit of violence and blood up ahead._

* * *

13

"Damn it, Mako. Wake up. Please."

Bolin was crouched next to me, shaking me violently.

"What?" I shouted, though I could immediately see _'what.'_ The spirit world was on fire. The woods below the tower had gone up in flame, branches cracking and groaning as they broke.

"Sea monster!" Bolin shouted. "We gotta get out of here!" He grabbed me by the armpit and lifted me up. I stumbled, my legs stiff and half asleep from sitting for so long. Somehow, I had my shoes and spats on again.

"What?" I said again, more than a little lost. "There's no sea."

"Lake monster, whatever! C'mon!" He dragged me a couple steps towards the far edge of the roof. Beyond the flames, I could see a sliver of the lake and shadowy hills beyond, untouched by fire.

Behind us, something roared. There was a duality to it, a deep growl that shook me inside and out, and a painfully high scream that felt like it was going to make my head explode. Bolin let go of me and spun on his heel, roaring back at the creature. With a flurry of movement, he tore chunks out of the tower and hurled them blindly through the flames.

The creature screamed in pain and Bolin turned again. "Cover me!"

I faced the pitted rooftop and the flames beyond, hands up and ready as Bolin began demolishing the tower, making a way for us to get down. The creature roared again, that deep, violent sound that was felt more than heard.

Something black and massive moved behind the flames and a wave crashed over the burning beach, the fires quenched in steam. A dark shape shot through the cloud. A tentacle, as big around as my whole body. It wrapped around one of the pillars that ringed the rooftop and pulled.

The pillar held steady and from the steam a mass of tentacles emerged, flailing and twisting and reaching for the interior of the roof. A weak, terrified noise escaped me.

"Hah!" The weak blast barely kissed the nearest tentacle, but the sight and feel of my own fire rekindled my drive, that most basic drive of all living things. Survival. I shouted again and a blast of flames and superheated air struck the nearest tentacle. It writhed, black skin burned away to reveal red flesh underneath.

The creature screamed and heaved itself forward. The bulk of it was on the rooftop now, a mess of tentacles and eyes and steely sharp beaks each as big as my head. Piled together, the creature was the size of a mechatank, if not bigger.

I changed my stance and flung out my arms like I was shaking water from my fingertips. Twin whips of flame sprouted forth, stretching longer and longer as I funneled chi through my curled fingers. I cracked my whips at the creature in long, hurling motions. Loops and spirals of flame sliced and burned the advancing tentacles, but I couldn't push it back, or even slow its ungainly progress, no matter how much I cut it up.

"Bolin!" I shouted. The beast dragged itself forward, using the holes in the floor as handholds.

Bolin abandoned what he was doing and got into a fighting stance.

"Look out!" In a sweeping motion, the stone beneath the creature crumbled, turning black and then glowing red. Smoke filled the air as the creature burned, writhing and screaming that head-splitting scream. Bolin huffed and stomped, and in two movements he pulled up a geyser of lava and engulfed the burning creature.

Amazed, I let my chi disperse and my hands drop back to my sides. "Bo, you did it."

He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "There's more of them and they just keep coming. We gotta go."

In that moment of relative calm, I noticed for the first time just how dirty and singed his clothes and face were, how he walked like something was hurting him. I wanted to ask how long he'd been fighting the creatures, what they were and where they'd come from, but now was not the time. If he was right and there were more, we had to get out of there.

"Can you get us off the island?" I asked.

"Yeah," he panted. "Just let me..." He faced the edge of the tower and went back to dismantling the tower. He was bending something, but I couldn't see what until he gave one final downward shove and the edge of the tower collapsed in on itself, turning into a steep slope of gravel and debris.

We slid down to the ground and Bolin pushed me behind him as he pulled lava out of the face of the tower and poured it into the lake. Clouds of hissing steam rose up around the molten bridge.

"Why not just launch us over?" I asked as Bolin labored.

"'S all dirt and mud. Too soft."

"Right." I faced the beach behind us, watching for more of the creatures. Trees smoldered around us and here and there I spotted patches of glassy black rock, out of place among the dirt.

Ripples moved through the water and I raised my fists again, ready to strike at the creature as it emerged. Only it wasn't a creature, it was a piece of a burning branch that had fallen in the water from an overhanging tree. I relaxed.

And then, a roar. One of the creatures was dragging itself out of the water, two dozen yards from me, on the other side of Bolin and his bridge.

"Keep going!" I shouted as I launched myself over the river of lava with a flame-powered jump. I landed in a roll and used that spinning momentum to hurl a loop of fire into the creature. It screamed and snaked towards me. As it approached, I could see massive blisters on its skin from touching the boiling water.

I stood got into my warrior stance. I didn't need fancy, flashy moves, I needed power.

 _Survival. Protection. Destruction and anger._ These things had hurt Bolin and I wasn't going to let them try it again.

"Huah!" I brought my fists together in front of me and a jet of flames blasted forth, bright enough and strong enough to leave a corona—a ring of light—around the ignition point, my back leg shaking from the effort of withstanding the recoil.

The creature screamed again as flames and force ate away at it, burning a hole through its middle. By the time I ran out of breath, the thing was nearly cut in two, each of the halves twitching and spasming as it died.

Panting, I dropped my hands, ready to check again on Bolin, but the creature's movement changed. It moved with purpose, each half pulling in different directions.

"You've got to be kidding," I whispered as the thing tore itself in two. The two new creatures scrabbled for a moment, orienting themselves on the burning beach and then their milky eyes found me.

I swore and started firing, fear creeping in around the edges of my thoughts. Would they just keep dividing? How could I defeat something that could make more of itself?

"Mako!" Bolin shouted at me and I abandoned my fight with the two smaller creatures. "Go, go!" he shouted and I ran across the newly made bridge, feeling the heat of it through the soles of my shoes.

Looking back, I saw Bolin hurl the last of his lava at the creatures, creating a barrier between us and them before following in my wake. We crossed the bridge and Bolin paused to revert the stone back to lava before scrambling with me up the hillside.

We stopped on the path about half way between the shore and the pear tree on top of the slope, at least a hundred feet up from the water. Bolin immediately collapsed to his knees, dropping his backpack on the ground beside him. Steam rolled off the lake below us in thick, opaque clouds. The little I could see of island was a ruin, the trees burnt and the tower turned to melted slag. If the spirits of that place hadn't been angry already, they certainly would be now.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. You?"

"I'm fine." Angry, but fine. I rubbed my face and stared out at the lake. "What happened?"

"While you were out?"

I nodded, watching the steam rise.

"Well, you went to sleep, so I went to the beach to skip stones and... I dunno. I bonked one of them on the head or something. What about you? I thought you were just sleeping at first, but then you wouldn't wake up and..." He trailed off, unable to voice the fears he'd had.

I sat down next to him, guilty now that I'd made him worry.

"It worked. I crossed over. I talked with Jinora and Bei-" I cut myself off, remembering Spikes for the first time since coming back. I could feel the spirit against my skin, but between the crazed tentacle beasts and the adrenaline, I hadn't consciously noticed it.

Bolin raised an eyebrow at my self-censorship. "Jinora and?"

"And she said she might be able to help us find Korra." As much as I wanted to, I couldn't tell Bolin about Bei Fong's plan to do something about the possessed.

"What was it like, crossing over?"

I stared off into space, trying to put it to words. "Yellow."

"Yellow?"

I shook my head. "Nothing felt real. Kind of like reading a book? Or dreaming maybe."

Bolin stared, open mouthed as I struggled to explain, hanging on my every word. We were discussing the possibility of being able to fly like that when something black and stringy caught my eye, moving between the bushes.

"Look out!"

I was on my feet in an instant, but Bolin was slower to react. The creature had scaled the hillside frighteningly fast, tentacles straining. It screamed and whipped one tentacle forward, snagging Bolin by the ankle. Before I could grab him, it had dragged him out of my reach, back down the hill.

"Mako!" Bolin shouted. He slammed his hands and the toes of his free foot into the hillside, burying himself in the earth in an effort to slow the creature's progress. The creature screamed and pulled on his free leg, making Bolin scream in response.

I skidded down the slope after them, firing wildly at the tentacle creature.

A second tentacle whipped upwards, wrapping itself around Bolin's waist. Digging his hands in deeper, Bolin let go with his free foot to kick against the hillside, sending an avalanche of gravel down over the creature. After a second kick, the steep hillside was practically a cliff, with Bolin holding up his own weight and that of the creature that held on to him.

I dropped to one knee, reaching for him. He pulled one hand from his elbow-deep grip to grab me, but the moment he did, gravity overcame his bending and he and the beast slid out of reach again.

I fired a blast at the creature, burning through its slimy appendages, but it only swapped one tentacle for another. I screamed in frustration, and then, the world skipped a beat.

I was kneeling, one arm outstretched while Bolin dangled from the cliff below me, the bloody remains of shorn tentacles still clinging to him, while the rest of the creature tumbled down the hillside. Bolin pulled his arm out of the rock and with a wave, buried the creature. More were coming though, a swarm of them slithering out of the lake.

"Mako."

Bolin was reaching up and I grabbed his hand, only to realize something was horribly wrong with my own hand. Bits of brown rusted metal were embedded in my skin, like the remains of a gauntlet I couldn't take off. I managed to pull Bolin to his feet, but after that I was frozen, staring at my damaged hand.

"Move!" Bolin shouted. He pushed his backpack into my arms and gave me a shove, pointing in the direction of the pear tree.

I stumbled up the hillside as Bolin faced the monsters alone. After a few steps, I realized what I was doing. I couldn't let him fight them by himself.

But he was. He was in his element, the slope below him becoming a death trap of lava and falling rocks. After a minute or so, the hillside was rendered utterly impassable, and the surviving tentacle beasts were left running for the shelter of the steaming lake.

I stood there, amazed and scared. Was this Bolin not holding back?

He stomped up the hillside after me, looking fierce and tired and savage. Without a word, he pulled me into a hug, his face buried in my chest. I could feel his hot breath through my shirt, not impeded by a rusty snake spirit.

"Spikes." I clenched my damaged hand and Bolin let me go.

"C'mon."

We stumbled up the hill together and didn't stop until we were out of sight of the lake. I collapsed on the side of the path and Bolin followed suit. For a long while, neither of us did anything but stare at my damaged hand as I twisted and turned it, comparing the damaged with the scarred.

Rusty metal scales covered the back of my right hand and forearm in a solid mass, with a few isolated patches spreading as far up as my shoulder. Beyond that, I looked and felt fine, no where near as deformed and mutilated as the possessed I had met back in the wilds.

"Does it hurt?" Bolin asked.

"No." I couldn't move my wrist all the way back and my fingers were stiff, but it didn't hurt exactly. "I don't understand. What happened?" I knew _what_ had happened—Spikes had possessed me—but I didn't know why or how or what had occurred during those instants when my body hadn't been my own.

"It saved me," Bolin said. "The squidy thing had me by the leg and you were trying to burn it up, but it wasn't working, and then..." He laughed. "I thought you were earthbending. And I was like, wow, that's really not fair. But it wasn't earth, it was that snake spirit, shooting out of your arm, like _fwah!_ "

I looked at my arm, trying to picture it.

"Or maybe it was a sword spirit? Because then it sliced through the squidy thing like it was nothing. I don't know what happened to it though. Maybe it got away, I dunno. I messed everything up pretty good." He paused, looking back towards the rising smoke. "Are you sure it doesn't hurt?" he asked, nodding at my arm.

"Just stiff." But the pain or the lack of it wasn't what I was worried about. It was the feeling of wrongness. I turned my focus inward, remembering the physical aspect of my lightning training, feeling the energy flow through me. I got up and ran through the practice forms Akoza had taught me, careful and deliberate, unlike the reckless point-and-shoot I'd learned from Zolt.

Bolin watched me, worry on his face.

I completed the set and stood there for a long moment, my damaged arm outstretched in front of me, just feeling the energy and trying to pinpoint what was wrong.

Bolin hissed through his teeth. "You didn't loose..."

"Hah!" I rammed my right arm forward in a burst of motion. For the first time ever, it felt like I had to force the fire out. My form was bad too, and I burnt my fingers, unable to keep them perpendicular to my forearm.

I snarled and shook out my hand, then tried again, a fist this time rather than an open hand. I managed not to hurt myself, but it still felt off, like trying to force water to flow uphill. I tried both moves with my left, and the weird feeling abated.

"Well, that's a relief," Bolin said. He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "We should get moving. I don't really wanna go to sleep and get woken up by a suction cup to the face."

He took a few limping steps along the path. I hated seeing him struggling and in pain, but he was right. We needed to get as far from the lake as we could.

I trotted after him and pulled the bag out of his grasp. He opened his mouth like he was going to argue, but something in my expression must have stopped him.

####

We managed to walk for a mile or so before Bolin had to call it quits. The trek had been a silent one, along a new path that followed the course of a slow-moving river. I did my best to focus on an emotion distinct from the ones back at the tower so we would be sure to get far away from it, but I wasn't so sure anymore that it was really places that corresponded to feelings, but rather that places _reacted_ to feelings.

We stopped at a flat spot beside the river and Bolin pulled himself together enough to make an earth tent before utterly collapsing. I started a fire and filled a pan with water for tea and instant noodles, promising I would keep watch for more angry spirits.

I managed to rouse him enough for noodles, but after that, it was right back to sleep.

For a long while I just sat and stared at the river, feeling lost. I'd managed to get in touch with the material world and share the information I needed to share, but the reality of the spirit world was wearing on me. It was vast and dangerous and confusing, and I was starting to wonder if we would be able to make it home again.

But I couldn't sit doing nothing forever. The fire had gotten low, so I grabbed some more firewood off the trees near our campsite, thanking each one individually just in case. I then went through all the supplies in Bolin's bag and carefully repacked it. Thanks to the spirits, we had enough food for another couple days or so, plus the bare necessities for camping.

I found a little knife in one of the bag's side pockets and started scraping long, thin strips off of one of the sticks, watching the pieces curl and burn as I dropped them in the fire. Mostly the flames were red, but occasionally little flecks of green or blue would appear when different impurities in the wood caught fire.

As I killed time, something Tuan said came back to me. The fact that healers and doctors had been able to help some of the possessed.

I laughed to myself, wondering if it was ironic or poetic that I was now one of their members.

My stick cut to shreds, I got up, unpacked the pan again and got some fresh water boiling. Once it was as hot as it was going to get, I dropped the knife in and counted out three minutes. Time up, I fished it out with chopsticks and left it to cool. While I waited, I pulled off my undershirt, tore it into strips and dumped half of them into the still boiling water.

 _Why did it have to be the right?_ I asked myself as I picked up the knife in my left hand. I dug the blade under the mat of reddish scales attached to my wrist and twisted, levering them up and wedging the knife in deeper.

It hurt, like peeling off my own fingernails. Sweat ran down the side of my face, and I found myself panting, unable to control my breathing.

The first one was the most difficult. I wiped a bloody sliver of metal on one of the rags, dabbed at the trickle of blood running down my arm and dug the knife in again.

It was cathartic in a way, watching the pile of scales grow. If this was the price I had to pay for Bolin to not be eaten by beaky tentacle monsters, it was totally worth it. Just another scar to add to my collection.

"Mako?" A female voice spoke into in my ear.

I jumped, dropping the knife.

"Jinora?"

The airbender girl was standing next to my campfire, staring at me.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice low and scared. I had the feeling she had been there a while, watching me pull out scales.

"Uh..." I picked up the knife and wiped it on one of the boiled rags. "I couldn't move my wrist."

She knelt down beside me. "What happened? Are you alright?" She glanced at the earth tent. "Is Bolin okay?"

"He's fine. Just tired." At least, I hoped that was the case.

She looked at my damaged arm and put her hand to her mouth, trying to hide a little gasp. "You got possessed."

"... Yeah."

"Before, or after-"

"After. I got back and there were these tentacle monsters, and..." I shrugged and started bandaging up my self-inflicted wound. "I'll be fine. Tell me about the meeting with your dad and Bei Fong."

"Okay, sure." She paused. "I thought you said you couldn't talk about what we were doing. There was a spirit watching you or something."

I kept my eyes on my work. "Not anymore."

"Oh." She just stood there for a long minute, biting her lip and staring at me.

"The meeting?" I prompted, harsher maybe than I should have.

Jinora blinked. "Right. Well, Dad didn't want to believe it at first, what you said about spirits possessing people. He was all, _'how could I not have known about this? This seems like something I should have read somewhere,'_ but then Lin said she trusted you and not everything's in books anyway.

"Long story short, they argued until my mom came in and told them to go help those poor people and we made a plan to go rescue them tomorrow night."

I looked up from my mess of bandages with a start. "Don't do that!"

"What? Why? I thought you wanted us to help them. We _should_ help them _._ "

"I know, but I don't think they want to be rescued like that. They..." I hesitated, trying to organize my thoughts. "They're scared. I think whoever's been in contact with them has been making them think they can't or they shouldn't go back to the city until they're cured, 'cause they'll be shunned if they do. I don't think that's true, but I also don't think you'll be able to convince them otherwise."

I sighed and tossed another piece of wood on the fire. "I think we have to come at this from a different angle."

"What do you mean?"

"Send them some food and medicine if you want to help them immediately, but you gotta work slow. Gain their trust, prove they were being fed misinformation. Their leader's name is Tuan. Get in touch with Bei Fong, see if you can find any info on him back at Missing Persons. Maybe if you find Tuan's family, have them meet him, it'll convince him to let the others go home."

"Okay. I'll tell Mom and Dad and Lin, but they might still want to go through with the rescue."

"Just tell them what I told you. Bei Fong will listen."

"I'll try."

"Thanks." I finished bandaging up my arm and dumped the removed scales into the fire.

"Did you ever find your friend?" Jinora asked.

"Who, Hyen? Yeah. I spied on him in the hospital, but he couldn't see me either."

She nodded. "Most people aren't very attuned to spiritual energies, and your projection wasn't very strong."

I snorted. "I'm surprised I could do it at all."

"If you want, I can show you how to control it better." She looked at me sidelong, shy almost.

"Yeah, I'd like that." It would be incredibly helpful for work, being able to jump around in spirit form without having to wait for traffic or trains. And if I could choose to be invisible, covert operations would become almost too easy. "Not now though. When we get back." As much as I wanted to learn Jinora's spirit projection technique, I had the feeling I would only be able to do it under very specific circumstances.

We watched the fire for a minute, or rather, Jinora watched me watching the fire.

"Is there anything else I can do to help?" she asked.

I thought for a moment. "Yeah, actually. There is. Can you find Korra and Asami?"

She looked away. "I don't know. I've been trying and trying, and I just can't."

"You found me and Bolin okay," I said, wondering what the difference was between her finding us and her finding Korra.

"I suppose. But I _just_ saw you earlier today, and your energy hasn't changed much."

"And Korra's has?"

Jinora bit her lip. "That's just it. I don't know. Sometimes I think I can feel it, but then I try to track it down, and it's just gone."

"What about Asami? Can you track her?"

"I don't know her as well as I know Korra, and besides, Korra's energy would overshadow hers. It'd be like looking for a firefly next to the sun."

"Huh." Her analogy wasn't great, but I got what she was saying.

I got out my logbook. It was more than half full of random spirit nonsense, but I still had plenty of pages left. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"I guess not."

I thanked her and started taking notes in sloppy, painful policeman's shorthand. "When did you start looking for Korra and Asami?"

Jinora stared off into the distance for a moment before returning with an answer. "About a month after they left."

"And why did you start looking for them?"

She sighed. "At first I was just worried—they'd been gone longer than they'd said they would be. But then I started getting this feeling that something was wrong, like the balance wasn't right."

"Can you be more specific?"

"It's like..." She frowned, thinking. "It's like having someone else clean your room. Everything gets moved around, and you don't know where anything is, and things just aren't right."

I wasn't sure what to make of that comparison. "What do you mean?"

Jinora threw her arms up in frustration. "The whole world is my room!"

I stared at her. Jinora was always so calm, it made this mild outburst all the more significant. "Can you give me any examples of things being not right?" I asked.

"Spirits kidnapping kids, for one. I've been exchanging letters with Professor Yedda up at the University of Qaniq, and she's telling me about all these weird things happening at the North Pole. Holes melted in the tundra, animals acting strangely, people going missing. Grandma Katara says the same stuff is happening in the South, too."

It didn't sound like much, but I wrote down Jinora's testimony anyway. "Anything else?"

She shook her head. "Just feelings."

"Hm," I said. I put the logbook down and shook out my cramped fingers. _Feelings_.

Bei Fong had told me once I had good instincts. I hadn't corrected her since she was my boss, but I didn't think she was right. Instincts meant having gut feelings that led you from one action or idea to the next. I didn't have instincts, I had practice and observation and a decent memory for details.

Jinora had instincts, but those instincts only seemed to be telling her _that_ something was wrong, not _what_ that something was.

"You think all those things are connected?" I asked.

"They have to be," Jinora said, absolutely certain.

I grunted and made another note in my logbook. Sometimes multiple problems had a single cause, but usually such causes were big things, like poverty or drugs rather than a single problematic individual.

"What would make spirits kidnap children, melt holes in the Poles, and harass animals? If they're connected I don't see how."

Jinora nodded, but didn't offer any suggestions.

"Zombie Unalaq?" Bolin was sitting in the mouth of his tent, watching me and Jinora talk.

I rolled my eyes, but Bolin's joke made me wonder: Could a reincarnated Unalaq be the cause? His reincarnation would be four years old now—about the same age as Korra when she'd discovered her bending. I made a note in the logbook.

"You know I was joking... right?" Bolin said, yawning.

"Yeah, bro, I know," I muttered as Bolin got up from the tent, stretching and cracking his joints.

"Are you here to take us home?" he asked Jinora.

Jinora jumped, like she'd been lost in thought. "Hi, Bolin. Yeah, I think I can do that."

Bolin hugged her, lifting her off the ground.


	14. Chapter 14

_AN: I must have re-written this chapter three times and I'm still not totally happy with it. Suggestions on edits more than welcome!_

 _No update next week since I will be away from my computer. Happy Holidays!_

* * *

14

It took Jinora a full day and a half to lead Bolin and I back to the portal, where her dad picked us up on his bison and flew us directly to the Air Temple. It didn't take him long after that to round up everyone who we thought ought to be involved and for Bolin and I to tell them our story.

At the moment, I had six pairs of eyes on me—Bei Fong and Opal were there, in addition to Tenzin, Pema, Jinora, Bolin and myself. With a grimace, I unwrapped the sterile gauze from around my damaged hand.

Thanks to my self-surgery, it looked and felt a lot worse than it had when I'd first got it. At Jinora's and Bolin's insistence, I hadn't picked at it any more, even though I'd wanted to.

"You couldn't have waited for a healer?" Bei Fong said, her nose wrinkled in distaste.

"No," I said. I had plenty of justifications—that I needed to be able to bend properly, that I was worried the scales would spread if I left them alone—but really, I'd done it because having chunks of metal growing out of my arm just felt wrong. Like everything from the elbow down was grafted on and belonged to someone—some _thing—_ else.

"I suppose I could call Kya," Tenzin said. "But really, I think we can use this to our advantage."

"How is that an advantage?" Opal said. She and Bolin sat together on a couch, fingers intertwined.

I spoke up before Tenzin could start pontificating. "It's solid proof that we're in control of. The possessed are too scared to cooperate, but now we have leverage without them. We can expose Special Forces' secret whenever and however we want, and do it in the way that best helps the possessed." The rest of the possessed.

"You didn't do this on purpose, did you?" Bei Fong asked.

"Of course not! You think I wanted this?"

Bei Fong gave me a look like she didn't believe me in the least, and I almost couldn't blame her. In terms of exposing Special Forces, it was great. The perfect way to convince the public and garner sympathy. But for my own health and happiness...

"Of course we don't," Tenzin said. I didn't think he was _trying_ to be patronizing, but his tone set my blood boiling.

I scowled and started re-wrapping my injury, listening with half an ear as everyone argued about what to do next. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep in my own bed, take a break from all this.

"I think we should go to the paper right now," Opal said. "Show them Mako's arm and take them to see the possessed. If we keep this secret, we're just as bad as Special Forces!"

As the only person present who had actually interacted with the possessed, I felt obligated to set her straight. "It's not that simple. The possessed don't _want_ the press to come talk with them. They're too scared and ashamed. Second, we're not allowed in the quarantine-"

"You and Bolin got in just fine."

"If by fine you mean illegally," Bei Fong said.

"Thank you," I said, glad I had someone on my side.

"What about their families?" Opal said. " _They_ at least deserve to know."

I sighed. "They do, but we don't know who they are."

"Can't you find out?" Pema asked, looking between me and Bei Fong.

"We don't have enough information. I only picked up one name—Tuan—and that's about it." Without more to go on, the photos and files over at the office were as good as useless. And it wasn't like the name was unique. There had to be thousands of Tuans in the city.

I looked up, realizing I'd been staring at the rug, thinking, and now everyone was watching me, like they expected me to have all the answers.

"I was a little preoccupied, okay?"

"Couldn't you go back?" Opal asked.

I frowned at her. Bolin winced, squeezing her fingers.

"The first time around they beat me up, imprisoned me and sicced a spirit on me. So sorry if going back there isn't high on the list of things I want to do." It was also their fault I'd gotten possessed myself, albeit indirectly.

"And it's illegal," Bei Fong interjected.

Opal glared at me and her aunt, pulling her fingers out of Bolin's grip to fold her arms across her chest. "You got in and out before just fine before. I don't see why you can't go back with someone who actually knows how to talk to people and get the information we need."

"Excuse me? I don't think I got to be one of the youngest detectives on the Force without knowing-" I cut myself off as Jinora put a hand on my arm. In my anger I had half gotten out of my chair, either to yell in Opal's face or walk away, I wasn't sure.

"I can do it," Jinora said as I sat back down, embarrassed.

"No way," Bei Fong said. "It's not safe."

"I won't go in person."

Tenzin and Pema shared a look.

"Jinora..." Tenzin said, worry in his voice.

"It's okay," she said. "I won't go over my time limit, and I won't even let them see me. After I saw Mako do it, I figured out how to hold back with my projection so no one else can see it." She glanced at me. "Just tell me where to go and what information to look for and I'm sure I can find it."

"Time limit?" Bolin asked, and Jinora explained the restrictions her parents had put on her regarding how much time she was allowed to spend using her spirit projection. While Jinora explained that and the specifics of her abilities, I leaned in close to Bei Fong.

"Can we hire her? Like as a specialist contractor?"

"If we want to use anything she finds in any above board kind of way, we'll have to."

"Then we'll need to get Vani involved." I was worried about making our already large circle even bigger, but I needed approval from my department head if I wanted to bring in a contractor.

"Don't worry about that. I can sign off on it. What I'm worried about is Raiko and Sonra Allu."

"Sonra who?"

"Head of Special Forces."

"And he and Raiko can access our Missing Persons records?"

Bei Fong nodded and I pulled at my chin, thinking. If Raiko or the Special Forces Head saw that I'd hired Jinora, would they be able to figure out why? Did they even know I was back yet, and that I knew about the possessed? How often did they communicate with Tuan and the rest?

"Is there any way to find out how much they know about this?" I gestured at our little meeting.

"Not unless you think you can do your spirit trick again," Bei Fong said, keeping her voice low. "And I can't ask Jinora—we're already asking too much." She glanced at the frail girl sitting to my left, all skin and bones.

"I can try," I said, feeling none too confident. "There's no one in Special Forces we could afford to get involved? Kung or Sergeant Kuri?"

Bei Fong looked at me like I couldn't be serious. "Raiko made Special Forces specifically to go behind my back. In theory they all answer to me, and I'd _like_ to trust my metalbenders, but..."

"But what?"

"It's all politics. Nothing you can do."

"Hmm." I nodded.

I knew Raiko had ordered the creation Special Forces in the name of better departmental organization, and that technically Bei Fong was still in charge of them, but it was kind of an open secret Raiko "borrowed" them a lot for things, kind of like he'd "borrowed" me to look after Wu. The question now was whether it was Raiko himself who was mishandling the possessed, or if it was purely a Special Forces problem. Before I'd assumed it was Raiko, but that was my own personal bias. I knew him and disagreed with his politics, but that didn't mean he was the one behind everything. It could just as easily be someone I didn't know at all. Sonra Allu, for example.

"So. The plan." Bei Fong said to the group at large, which had gotten off track with various side conversations.

Tenzin cleared his throat. "Jinora, as long as Lin thinks it's safe, you have our permission to help with the investigation."

"Thanks, Dad," Jinora said, but it seemed to me this was only a formality. There wasn't really anything Tenzin could do to prevent Jinora from using her powers however she wanted.

Bei Fong nodded. "Good. That's the most important thing we can work on for now. Mako, I would have you do the follow-up on whatever Jinora finds, but I can't have you raising suspicions at the office."

I followed Bei Fong's line of sight to my damaged arm and grimaced.

"I'll wear gloves."

"It's more than that. We're gonna need to get your stories straight— _all_ of you," she added, looking pointedly at Bolin. "And I can't have you abandoning your regular cases."

I folded my arms across my chest, mirroring Opal across from me. "I can do both."

"Not without your partner figuring something's up."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't want me to tell him."

"I know you trust Hyen, but the more people we bring in, the more complicated this gets."

"Fine." It was a valid point—the same reason I'd been worried about having to include Vani—but I didn't like how she'd said ' _you_ trust Hyen' and not _we_. He was a detective. Wasn't trustworthiness a core requirement for all detectives?

"Good." Bei Fong nodded. "For now, we need two things. The public version of you boys' little adventure, and someone to help follow up on whatever info Jinora digs up."

"Ooh! I know!" Bolin launched into a complicated saga, which got heavily edited by the rest of us. Most everything stayed true to fact, the main differences being that I had ended up in the spirit world courtesy of the dark spirit, and Bolin had come looking for me of his own volition. Hopefully no one would question why I had ended up in the spirit world while Chungsoo, who had also been attacked, did not. Meanwhile, Opal and Pema offered to help with the investigation, using public means to find the families of the possessed with Jinora's information. I would help too, but only if I could do it without anyone at the office noticing.

####

It was dusk by the time we finished the meeting, and I was so ready to go home it almost hurt. Red eyed and drained, Bolin and I walked with Jinora and Tenzin down to the bison pens for our ride home.

"Hey, Mako?" Jinora asked in a quiet voice.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what happened to the snake spirit?"

"Oh." I intentionally hadn't thought about Spikes during our return trip to avoid making the spirit world reflect my conflicted feelings, but we were safe from that now. "I dunno. It's probably dead. I don't think it could have survived all that lava."

Jinora gave me an odd look. "Spirits don't really _die_."

"Reincarnated then."

"Well, maybe. It's just..." She hesitated, wringing her hands.

I didn't have the patience right then for Jinora's shyness. "Whatever it is, can it wait until tomorrow?" I wanted to shower and sleep so bad.

"You've got some of it inside you," she said, not meeting my eyes.

I gave her my best _you can't be serious_ look and turned to go. _Of course_ I had some of it inside me. That was what it meant to get possessed. The proof of that was right there on my arm, painfully obvious to everyone.

"I mean spiritually!" Jinora said, jogging to keep up with me.

I paused mid-step, then carried on walking. "What do you mean?"

"Just... your energy's different. I wasn't sure at first, and I thought maybe it was from eating spirit world food. But then Bolin's hasn't changed, and he ate the same things you did."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Is this gonna kill me before tomorrow morning?"

"I don't think so."

"Then we can talk about it tomorrow."

I knew I was being rude, but I was well beyond my capacity to care about much of anything at this point.

"C'mon bro, let's goooo," Bolin shouted and I let him give me a hand up onto Oogie's back.

####

The next day I slept in late and spent a leisurely morning dealing with all the mundane things that had piled up during my unexpected absence. I cleaned out the icebox, watered my plants and went through my winter clothes to find a pair of gloves that would cover up my... disfigurement. That plus long sleeves and no one would notice a thing. It helped me not think about it too.

Jinora showed up in spirit form shortly after I got back from running some errands.

"So, what's this about my spiritual energy?" I asked after I had locked the door and set down my shopping, Jinora floating nearby.

"It's changed, but not in the normal way people's energy changes over time. It's patchy."

"And?" I prompted as I loaded vegetables into the icebox.

"And it's really different. Like different species different."

"But it's not going to hurt me, right?" I knew Bei Fong had gotten sick from having her spiritual energy messed up, but I wasn't nauseous, didn't have a fever or anything.

"I really don't know. Can't you feel it yourself?"

"I guess so," I said. "My bending felt off, but that was from the scales, I think."

"But you haven't noticed your energy feeling different?"

"No? I don't know what spiritual energy is supposed to feel like anyway." I might have gotten a glimpse of it during my out of body experience, but _everything_ had been so weird then, I was having a hard time sorting through those memories.

"Well, you can feel your chi, right?"

"I can."

Jinora nodded. "It's like that. Only it's harder to hear because it's so quiet. Anyone can do it if they meditate, and it's even easier if you can project your spirit away from your body."

"Huh. And you're sure this isn't going to kill me."

"I'm not sure. But since you said it looked like the possessed were doing okay..." She trailed off and watched me work on my chores.

"Could you teach me?" I asked. She'd offered to teach me spirit projection before, but with both of us as busy as we were, I didn't know if she'd have the time and energy for it. She might have just been being polite.

I smiled though when Jinora lit up, literally. Blue light flared as she grinned.

"Of course! I'd love to. And it'll give you a reason for being on the island so you can talk to Mom and Dad about the case without raising suspicions, _and_ you'll get to meet Insook!"

"Who?"

"Professor Yedda's student. She's coming down to study spirituality in Republic city and teach some classes at the university. She'll be here soon. I'm sure you'll like her, she's really nice."

Jinora told me a little more about Insook and her studies and organized a time for me to begin my spirit projection training before vanishing again.

That out of the way, I sat down with a cup of tea and the newspaper before I left for my other visit of the day.


	15. Chapter 15

_AN: Short chapter this week, sorry. Hopefully I'll have something ready by next Friday, but I've got some Life Things (job interview + new classes) between now and then. Yikes!_

* * *

15

Hyen lived on the top floor of an older apartment building, a good ways away from headquarters. The layout of the building was weird, like so many hexagons squished together. It had tall, narrow windows with big green awnings that made them look like sleepy eyes and the facade was covered in dizzying zig-zag patterns. I'd been by once or twice before, but I hadn't yet been inside.

I rang the bell and waited, looking up at the architecture.

"'Lo?" Hyen's voice buzzed through the speaker.

"It's Mako," I said. Hyen swore—sounding surprised, not angry—and let me in.

I climbed the green carpeted stairs and met Hyen outside his apartment.

"Hey! You survived!" He punched me on the arm, balanced precariously on a crutch and one leg.

"You too," I said, following him inside. Like the rest of the building, Hyen's apartment was very Earth Kingdom. Lots of greens and browns and simple geometric shapes. Not a lot of clutter or junk either beyond an entire wall full of books.

"What's with the gloves?" Hyen asked.

I glanced down at my hands, wincing. "I, uh, burnt myself and I want to keep the bandages clean."

Hyen gave me a look like he wasn't sure what to make of that, but he let it slide. "Right. Well, I was just about to make a drink, sit out on the roof. You want one?"

"Sure."

Hyen limped to the kitchen and pulled a dark green bottle out of the icebox. "You like orange juice okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay."

Hyen dumped some orange juice and a liberal amount of liquid from the green bottle into a pitcher, while I found a couple of glasses, and carried all the things up to the roof. From what I could see, it looked like each of the top-floor apartments owned a section of the roof, divided by tall brick walls. Hyen's section overlooked the alley behind the building, and was decked out with chairs and a table, paper lanterns and a little garden with decorative plants.

"Nice place," I said and poured us both a glass of the concoction.

"Thanks."

I took a sip. It was better than I'd expected.

"Oh, hey." I set down my drink and dug in my pocket for a small paper box with a picture of a komodo rhino on the front and a note taped to the back. I tossed it to Hyen, who caught it.

" _I'm sorry you broke your leg_. _Mako._ " Hyen read the note and laughed. "Thanks. Do you mind?"

"No."

He took a cigarette from the box, made me light it, and started puffing.

"So, what happened?" I asked, kicking at the cast.

Hyen snorted. "I should be the one asking that. I'm sure whatever happened to you is infinitely more interesting."

That statement was most likely true, but I wasn't all that eager to tell my edited story. "You first."

Hyen breathed out a big puff of smoke. "Not much to tell. That dark spirit went after you and Chungsoo like you were made of candy and yuans. Me and Kung ran for it, managed to find an old house to hide in. Radioed for help, then ran into the spirit again when we went to rendezvous with backup. It got me by the arm, and Kung sicced her dog on it. It dropped me and I landed bad, but backup got both of us out. Special Forces guys were mostly fine, I think." Another puff of smoke. "Healer says it'll be another six weeks for the cast. My sister's been helping out though, so that's been nice."

"I thought she lived in Omashu with your parents."

"That's Hana. Syo moved up here a couple years after I did. She's been helping with groceries and things."

I nodded, wondering if Bolin would do the same for me if I broke my leg and couldn't leave my apartment. I was sure he would. "You haven't gone stir crazy yet?"

"Only a little. I'm going back to work in a few days though. Bei Fong's sending an earthbender to help with the stairs and the driving." He mushed the end of the cigarette into an ashtray on the table and took a sip of the orange stuff. "Your turn."

I sighed and flexed my wrist under the glove. "Don't go spreading it around, but... I wound up in the spirit world."

That made Hyen sit up straight. He opened his mouth, but I anticipated his question before he could spit it out.

"No, I didn't find the Snatcher."

Hyen leaned back again. "Well, the spirit world's a big place. How'd you get back?"

"Tenzin's daughter Jinora found me."

"She's the one you told me about, with all the spirit powers?"

I nodded, sipped my drink.

"You can't just leave it at that," Hyen said. "What was it like? Did you battle any huge evil monsters or talk with your past lives?"

"I wouldn't say the monsters were _huge._ As big as a jeep, maybe. And I had Bolin with me then."

Hyen demanded the full story after that and I told him what I could, leaving out the possessed and Spikes. Once I'd finished and answered most of Hyen's questions, we sat in silence, him in shock and me just enjoying myself. Down on the street I could hear traffic and kids, and I smiled to myself, glad to be back in civilization.

"What happened to all those pictures you took in the quarantine?" I asked after a little while.

"Hm? Oh, Kung has them, I think."

"There's some things I want to look at. I think they're important for the case." Specifically, that rotten thing in the shop Kung had been so secretive about. I had a hunch it was the body of someone who hadn't survived possession, but I wasn't one to trust hunches.

"The case? You might want to cool it for a couple days. Recover from your little trip. I know you're still trying to get yourself established, but you gotta take a break once in a while. Set the precedent now so you don't get overworked later. Besides. Maybe this'll convince Bei Fong to let Vani hire more help. Then you won't be the rookie anymore," Hyen said, like that alone should have been enough to convince me.

"What do you think I'm doing right now?" I asked, topping off my glass of orange stuff.

"Talking shop, which is practically the same as working, and is henceforth against the rules of my roof. Tell you what. You play cards, right? I got a deck down in the kitchen. Grab it and we'll play a round."

I did like he asked and we played a couple rounds of 3-card sweep.

Hyen was about to win yet another hand when an alarm went off downstairs. We both jumped and the color drained out of Hyen's face.

"What? What is it?"

Hyen put down the cards, looking deeply uncomfortable. "It's the doorbell. Syo said she might stop by with the kids. I totally forgot."

"I thought you got along," I said, confused.

"We do. It's just, she..."

The noisy bell rang again and I flinched. "She what?"

"She's very set in her ways."

I shrugged. I didn't see how that was much of a problem, but clearly Hyen thought it was, and if my being around his sister made him uncomfortable... I stood up, collecting the cards and dirty glasses. "Some people are. Listen, I have some things I need to do today. I should probably head out."

"Oh. Yeah, sure," he said, and I wasn't sure if he was reluctant or relieved to see me go. Maybe both.

I held the door for him and we went back downstairs. We put away the cards and glasses and Hyen waited by the open door while I put on my shoes and spats. Just as I finished doing up the last button, the sound of stampeding elephant-hippos filled the hallway and a herd of children rounded the corner. The leader of the stampede, a boy maybe ten or twelve years old, stopped short, only to be pushed over as his brother and sister ran into him.

"Mom!" the little girl yelled as her brothers grappled on the floor, "there's a man in Auntie Hyen's house!"

"Auntie?" I glanced back at Hyen, bemused. He had his face hidden in one hand. "Wait." I peered at my partner. "Hyen?"

Hyen pulled his hand away, face red with anger. "Play along, Mako," he hissed, furious. He limped past me, and in those few steps, the anger buried itself, replaced with a rigid mask of pleasantness.

"Hey, kiddos!" The kids swarmed him, trying to knock him down while being feebly fended off with the crutch.

"Jae! Zan! Lili! Be nice!" a woman shouted as she strode down the hallway. The two boys backed off and Hyen balanced precariously on one leg to lean over and pick up the little girl.

The woman marching down the hall looked a lot like Hyen—short, somewhat overweight, with a round face and dark skin—and definitively feminine in a green and yellow dress and a pillbox hat.

"Hyen, honey!" she cooed, giving him a hug. "Who's your friend?" She gave me an appraising look, arms folded across her chest.

Hyen coughed. "Syo, this-"

"Is this your new partner?" she squealed. "' _Too-bad-he's-a-bender'_ Mako? You didn't tell me he was cute!"

"I... What?" I said. There was too much going on, too many points I needed to clarify, but Hyen was looking at me like he wanted to murder me.

"Mako was just leaving," Hyen said. "Thanks for stopping by."

"He's a bender!?" the younger boy shrieked. "Show me, show me!" He thrust a hand into the pocket of his shorts and produced a fistful of dirt, which he brandished at me.

"Zan! Where did you get that?" the boy's mother shouted and grappled with him for the dirt, scattering it on the carpet.

Hyen caught my eye and nodded at the stairs. I saluted and quietly snuck away while chaos reigned in the hallway.

####

I trundled my bike out onto the street, still feeling overwhelmed. Hyen had some kind of issue and I didn't know what to make of it. I would have pinned it on him being embarrassed by his noisy sister and her wild children, but I had my own obnoxious family, and obnoxious families didn't warrant that level of reaction. And sure, the little girl had called him 'Auntie,' but I had been around Tenzin's kids enough to know that kids were weird.

I took the long way home, and by the end of my ride, the noise and the wind and the exhilaration helped me forget all about the incident.

* * *

 _Fun Fact: While the first drunk driving laws were enacted in the US around 1910, it wasn't until the late '30's/early '40's that they became widespread, and the '80's that people began to take them seriously, thanks to various public safety advocacy groups. So, while mimosas and motorcycles are a **bad idea** , they are not, in this context, explicitly illegal._

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	16. Chapter 16

16

After making detective, I had splurged and bought myself a telephone service. Bolin had of course teased me about it, saying it didn't count as a splurge since it was boring and practical, not fun. I liked having it though. It made it convenient if Bei Fong or anyone at the office needed to get in touch with me, and saved me the hassle of riding all the way out to Grandma's house to check on her and the cousins. But my favorite part was the fact that the dumpling shop down the street would bring food right to my door if I asked nicely and slipped the delivery girl a couple extra yuans.

At the moment though, I wasn't indulging in overpriced dumplings. I was calling up Jinora to ask her a favor. Well, two favors.

It had been a couple days since I'd visited Hyen, and since I'd somehow embarrassed him by running into his sister, I figured I had to make it up by doing something nice for him in such a way that it was unlikely for the incident to repeat itself. In other words, get him away from his apartment.

I waited, receiver wedged between my shoulder and ear, examining my damaged hand while one of the air acolytes went to fetch Jinora. The spot I'd picked at had mostly healed, leaving a smooth strip of ghostly white scar tissue on the back of my wrist. I was tempted to dig out the pliers and start picking at the rest, but this was evidence now. It'd be a crime for me to destroy it. I tugged on my gloves, trying to convince myself I was being stylish.

"Mako?" Jinora finally picked up the phone.

"Hi, Jinora. We're still on to do the meditation stuff this afternoon, right?" I asked. I had my doubts it would work, but it was worth trying at least.

"Of course!" I could practically hear her smiling.

"Good. And you're still fine giving me a ride?"

"I'll pick you up on Pepper."

"Perfect. One more thing..." I explained my plan for the afternoon. Jinora agreed and not too long after, I met her in the park near my apartment. Well, technically it was an abandoned lot infested with vines, not a park, but whatever.

I climbed onto the bison's back and we took off, moving deceptively fast over the city.

"How's the Snatcher investigation going?" Jinora asked, shouting a little over the wind. She still looked painfully frail, and I was beginning to wonder if any amount of sleep would fix the bags under her eyes.

"It's not. Bei Fong still has me and Hyen on medical leave." For Hyen it made sense, but for me... I didn't think being possessed really counted as a medical problem, at least in my case, but apparently Bei Fong did. "What about your investigation? How are you holding up?" I felt bad that we were asking her to use her spirit powers as much as we were, but I justified it, believing that even if we hadn't, she would still be using them just as much to search for Korra rather than spy on the possessed.

"I'm fine," she snapped, as if being asked if she was okay made her more sick. "They don't talk about their families much though. Mostly I've found stuff about the possessed themselves. Names, what kinds of jobs they had..." She shrugged and gave the reins a flick, directing her bison up higher above the buildings. "How's Bolin?"

"He's okay. He didn't get fired at least."

"That's good," Jinora said, her voice softening.

A short flight later, Jinora parked her bison in the air a few feet above an oddly shaped apartment building. I lowered myself down on a stretch of rope and pounded on Hyen's rooftop door.

Wearing pajamas and armed with a baton, Hyen answered my pounding. For a second he just stood there, mouth open.

"That's a sky bison," he said, not bothering with a hello.

"Yes, it is," I agreed. "I have some things I need to do on the island. Are you bored enough you want to come?"

Hyen lowered the baton, surprise and awe replaced with something more serious. "You know you don't have to do this, right?"

I stuck my hands in my pockets, offended. "Sure I do. I'm just trying to be nice."

He looked at me, squinty-eyed.

"What? Am I not allowed to be nice?" I knew I had a reputation for being aloof, but that was only with people I didn't know.

"Did Bei Fong send you? Or Vani?"

"No."

He kept up the evil eye act for a minute, then sighed. "Let's get this over with. Give me a minute."

"You don't have to come," I said, following Hyen inside.

"I want to!" he shouted back. "Just wait upstairs, okay?"

I humphed and sat in one of the deck chairs.

Hyen returned a minute or so later, fully dressed with his hair in a knot and wearing a pair of pants with one leg cut off to accommodate for his cast. It took some doing getting him up onto Pepper's saddle, but between Jinora's help and Hyen's stoic insistence that being dropped on a broken leg didn't hurt at all, we managed.

"Yip, yip!" Jinora tugged at the bison's reins and we were off.

Hyen clung to the saddle, face stuck somewhere between terror and exhilaration.

We soared over the city and across the bay, finally landing at the bison enclosure on the island. Acolytes rushed over with ladders to help us down and lead Pepper away, and Hyen and I followed Jinora up to the temple.

"So, gloves still?" Hyen asked, limping beside me.

I flexed my damaged hand. "Yeah. It's not pretty."

"Mm." Hyen made a sympathetic noise and let the topic go.

By the time we got to the main temple steps, I noticed he was breathing heavy. Walking with a broken leg was probably harder than it looked.

"Hey," I called to Jinora. "Mind if we take a breather?"

She turned around. "Oh. Alright. I'm gonna tell my mom you're here, okay?"

I nodded and watched as she bent herself a bubble of air to sit on and zoomed up to the temple, dust blowing in her wake. I smoothed my hair back and sat on the steps next to Hyen.

"Thanks," Hyen said.

I shrugged.

Hyen rubbed at his cast for a moment, frowning. "Why are we here?" he asked.

"We're having lunch with Pema and Jinora and the acolytes, and then Jinora's going to show me some spiritual stuff." Tenzin was out and about fulfilling his Air Nomad duties or something.

That answer earned me an eye roll. "Let me clarify. Why am _I_ here?"

"You said you were bored, and I thought you and Pema might get along, so since I was coming here anyway-"

Hyen groaned.

"What?"

"Nothing. Is that really your answer?"

I didn't know what to say. I _had_ been honest in my answer, and adding anything more would mean making things up.

"Uh," I said, trying to think, and confused as to why Hyen was being grumpy. Was he still mad about me meeting his sister?

"Whatever." Hyen planted the crutch against the ground and hauled himself up.

"I... Because we're friends, right?" Was this not the kind of thing friends did? Did being coworkers mean we couldn't be friends as well? These seemed like such stupid questions I was embarrassed even to think them.

Hyen gave me a very odd look. "And this isn't because you wanted to grill me on my personal life."

I blinked. "Uh, no? I mean, everyone's got embarrassing family members." I shrugged. "My cousin Tu is a jerk, your sister's loud... It's fine."

Again the odd look, like he was trying to figure out my angle.

"Why are you getting so worked up?" I asked.

Hyen sighed. "Let's talk after we meet your friends."

"Okay." He was being weird and cagey and I didn't know what to make of it, but I was more than willing to postpone making him talk about whatever it was. Never would be fine by me if he went back to acting normal.

Hyen grunted and gave me a tired look. "Let's go."

I got to my feet and we slowly inched up the stairs to the temple. By the time we met up with Pema and the rest, Hyen was all smiles and chit-chat, foul mood forgotten.

####

"What do you usually focus on when you meditate?" Jinora asked.

The two of us were sitting outside, on a little patio that overlooked the westernmost edge of the island. I sat in the sun, while she had put up a little orange umbrella to protect her skin.

"A candle and my breathing and noticing what I'm thinking."

"When you crossed over, did you do anything different?"

"I didn't have a candle, and I tried to think about how everything is connected. A spirit told me to."

"Think about it how?" Jinora asked.

I considered the question. "I guess I didn't think, I more just let it sit in my head."

Jinora didn't respond right away, and when she did, she sounded distant, sleepy. "Good. Focus on that again. I'm going to help you cross over. Once you can do that by yourself, we can work on projection."

I nodded an acknowledgment and adjusted my position—legs crossed, hands on knees. My right hand still felt weird, like it didn't belong to me, but the gloves had definitely helped me forget about it.

I exhaled and let that thought go.

It was harder this time, to reach that state where I could just let my thoughts fade away into darkness. Lunch with Hyen and Pema and the rest had been fun, with lots of jokes and stories that wanted to replay themselves in my head. And of course I had all kinds of nagging problems I would have to deal with in the near future. The weirdness with Hyen. The possessed. My damaged hand.

Jinora's quiet voice cut through my thoughts. "Relax. This time is for meditation."

I unclenched my jaw and sat up straight. I listened to the waves, the wind moving through the trees, an insect droning nearby. It all made a picture I could see in my head without opening my eyes. A pleasant picture. Relaxing.

I breathed, and focused again on the thought that had let me cross the world boundary before. Just me and the thought. I sank deeper into the meditation, somewhere between sleeping and awake, awareness and oblivion.

 _Everything is conn-_

A strange feeling hit me, like a giant hand grabbing at my heart, trying to pull it out through the top of my head. I bucked forward, coughing and gasping.

"Relax," Jinora said. "Let me guide you."

I rubbed at my chest. "Did you do that?"

"It worked with Korra," she said, defensive, and I was reminded that for all her powers and wisdom, she was still just a fifteen year old kid.

I huffed and resumed my position. This time around, it only took a few minutes to slip back into the meditation. Breathing, thoughts, all my awareness was inward, tranquil. The outside world seemed to fade from perception, and then-

"Gah!" I braced one hand on the ground, the other clutching at my chest.

"You have to relax! Trust me!" Jinora said, sounding far from relaxed herself.

"It'd be a little easier if it didn't feel like getting my soul ripped out of my body."

Jinora rolled her eyes so hard her whole head moved. "That's the whole point."

I glared at her. "Let's try it again, but not so... forceful this time. Let me figure it out." I _had_ done it before, after all, without anyone's 'help.'

Jinora closed her eyes and pressed her fists together by way of agreement. I did the same, hoping the different pose might help, and yet again returned to my meditation.

Time passed, but I just wasn't feeling it. The ground was hard, the buzzing insect was annoying, the breeze was making my hair blow around and tickle my ears.

I opened my eyes to check and see if Jinora was still at it, and caught something moving at the edge of my vision. I turned and had just enough time to stand and jump out of the way as Ikki barreled down the path on a bubble of air.

"Jinora! You got letters!" She screeched to a halt mere inches from her sister.

Totally unperturbed, Jinora looked up. "Thank you, Ikki." She held out her hand and Ikki ceremoniously handed over the letters.

"Who're they from? Anything exciting?" She leaned over her sister's shoulder, balancing on her toes.

Jinora looked at the envelopes. "A note from the bookstore saying they found that book I wanted, and another letter from Professor Yedda."

Ikki blew a raspberry. "Boring. I'm gonna go check on the bison. Mako, do you wanna come?"

"That's okay. Thanks, Ikki. If you see Hyen though, tell him I'm almost done."

"I will. But this is the last time you get Ikki's message delivery service for free. I'm a busy girl, you know!"

Ikki took off again and I sat down next to Jinora. "Who is Professor Yedda?" I'd heard Jinora mention her a couple times, but I still didn't know who she was.

"She teaches spiritual studies at the University of Qaniq, in the Northern Water Tribe. She's been helping me with my research."

"What's your research?" I asked, partly because my sojourn into the spirit world had left me with many unanswered questions, and partly because there was a chance it might be relevant to either the Balcony Snatcher, the possessed, or both.

"The nature of time and space in the spirit world and the ways in which spiritual energy interacts with the physical world."

"Oh," I said, realizing there was probably a lot of prerequisite knowledge I would need before I could begin to understand the contents of Jinora's letter, let alone apply it to my current investigations.

"She and her students been taking measurements on the other side of the Northern Portal," Jinora said absently, scanning the letter. "I have some of their papers if you're interested."

"Maybe." I wondered if I should have taken Ikki's offer to check on the bison.

Jinora flipped through the pages fast enough that I knew she couldn't be reading every single word. When she got to the end though, she slowed down, a broad smile lighting up her wan face.

"Ooh!" Jinora squealed.

"What?"

"Insook's supposed to get here in a couple days! I have to tell Dad!" She pulled herself to her feet with a gust of wind, then looked back at me, kind of guilty. "Sorry I wasn't more help. Will you keep practicing?"

I told her I would, though I wasn't sure when I would have the time.

She beamed and took off much like Ikki had a few minutes ago. I followed on foot, wondering if I wasn't getting lost in the weeds with all this spiritual stuff.

####

After extracting Hyen from Pema's kitchen and hitching a ride back to the peninsula from one of the acolytes, I finally had a chance to ask my partner about what was going on with him. I waited on Hyen's section of roof, while he worked out what he wanted to say. He looked like he wanted to pace, but the cast prevented it, so he just rocked back and forth, leaning on the crutch.

"You heard Lili call me 'auntie,' right?"

"Your niece?" I confirmed, thinking back. "I guess so." Kids were weird, as I had learned from being around Jinora's siblings.

"Because technically, biologically, I _am_ her auntie."

I gave Hyen my best disbelieving look.

"That's why Niriko, my old partner, left. She found out, didn't like that I'd been... obfuscating the technical truth, and she talked Bei Fong into getting her transferred." From Hyen's tone, I could tell a lot of unsavory details were being glossed over.

"Uh-huh." I was confused. Everyone at the office thought Hyen was a guy. He looked like a guy, sounded like a guy, and acted in a pretty guy-ish manner. I guessed if he _was_ a woman, those things could be explained by clothes, cigarettes, personality and an unusually masculine physique, but it still didn't make sense.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it made her uncomfortable," Hyen said, still talking about Niriko.

"No, I mean why..." I floundered for words. "If you're not a guy, why tell people you are?"

"Because. It's easier. It's what most people assume, and I prefer that." This sounded an awful lot like my rote answer to " _Do you know where the Avatar is?"_

"Okay." I rubbed the back of my head, still confused. It wasn't so much that Hyen was lying, as simply allowing a misconception to propagate. I could imagine young Hyen showing up for training, getting mistaken for a guy, and then never bothering to correct anyone. Only, Hyen had been on the force for about twelve years. That was an awful long time to keep up a charade.

I frowned. Hyen was making choices that made people think he was a guy, kind of like how when I was younger, I'd tried to make it obvious I was a firebender. Wearing lots of red, spiking up my hair, using my bending even when it wasn't totally necessary. Partly it was for safety—the average mook always thought twice before attacking a firebender—but mainly it was pride. I'd wanted people to _know_ what I was. Was that so different from wanting people to _think_ something about me?

I didn't know if it was. On the face of it, what Hyen was doing seemed dishonest, but was it really? Hyen in a dress was about as silly as me in an airbender's wing suit. Then again, I couldn't really imagine Bei Fong in a dress either, and she didn't bother tricking everyone all the time. Was there anything else Hyen was lying about, or was this an isolated thing?

Heck, I wasn't exactly clean on the lying front either. Between the possessed and my damaged arm, I was by far the guiltier party in terms of number of lies. But in terms of the size and longevity of the lies... Did his lie even _count_ as a lie though, if it was what he 'preferred'?

"Listen," Hyen said, interrupting my thoughts. "If you want to transfer, that's fine. Or if you want to stay in Missing Persons, Vani could use a partner."

"Vani?" I repeated, surprised. "Are you getting rid of me?"

"If we can't work together—"

"Why can't we work together?" I didn't particularly want to partner up with Vani, and I knew I wasn't ready to work solo. "I can keep a secret. And if you're worried about... about romance, I, uh..." I almost said _I'm not interested_ , but caught myself at the last second, not wanting to be offensive. "I am very professional." I straightened my shoulders and puffed out my chest for emphasis.

Hyen made a face like he was holding back a laugh. "You don't have to worry about _that_."

"Okay," I said, wishing I had Bolin's sense of humor. He would have said something funny and killed the last bit of tension floating in the air. "Are we good?" I asked instead.

"Yeah, we're good."

We chatted for a little while about inconsequential things before I took the train home, glad that the weirdness had been so easily resolved.


	17. Chapter 17

17

After a full four days of being back in the civilized world, I called Bei Fong. But first I prepared myself by hashing out in my head all the arguments for why I shouldn't be on medical leave. That the Snatcher case was still unresolved. That it wouldn't be too difficult to hide my affliction from the rest of the office. That it was a waste of taxpayer money to have me on the payroll if I wasn't doing anything. And so on.

After being shunted through the web of connections that was the Police Station line, I finally got through to my boss.

"Yes?"

"Chief, it's Mako. I think I should come in to work today."

"Good. That's fine. _Now as for you_!"

From the way her voice got distant in that non-sequitur, I imagined Bei Fong pointing the receiver at some rookie who had been dragged into her office. Smiling at that mental picture, I hung up the phone and got ready for the day.

####

I walked into the office that morning faced with stares. _Why?_ I wondered. _Because I'm late? Is it the gloves?_ But then Vani got up from her desk and walked over to me, arms spread wide.

"Mako, you're back! Bei Fong told us what happened and we were so worried!" She gave me a hug and stepped back, not even pausing her monologue to breathe. "Are you okay? Have you seen Hyen yet? Tell us what happened!"

"Uh," I said as Detective Umida came out from behind his desk to give me a manly slap on the back. Even the department secretary came over to join in the gossip.

I coughed into my fist to buy myself some time to think. "You just said Bei Fong told you what happened."

"Of course, but you know the importance of witness corroboration," Vani said with a wink. I knew she was joking, but it still made me nervous.

"Right," I said, extra glad now Bei Fong had helped me edit my story and that I'd practiced it already with Hyen. Vani and Umida asked some very probing questions, but at no point did they seem outright suspicious of the series of events. In fact, they were more interested in my well-being and how Hyen was doing than the specifics of what had happened.

It was unexpected, but nice.

Once the catching up was complete and I had gotten through at least some of my continuously growing pile of paperwork, I picked up my helmet and set out for the Special Forces offices.

The Special Forces offices were located on the other end of downtown in a ramshackle collection of buildings that had been quickly patched up not long after Kuvira's attack. Maybe it was to maintain their aura of mystery, or more likely, there just wasn't enough space at Headquarters. From the outside they didn't really look like Police property, but once you noticed the number of cruisers and Special Forces uniforms coming and going, it was obvious.

By some stroke of luck, the first person I ran into also happened to be someone I knew. Sergeant Kuri. She had on bright orange makeup around her eyes today, and had bleached the bottom few inches of her shoulder-length hair so it looked kind of like flames and smoke.

"Detective Mako," she said once she spotted me. "You here to send more of my people to the hospital?" She folded her arms across her chest and frowned at me.

"Uh," I said, guilt twisting in my stomach. "No. Are Kung and Chungsoo doing okay?"

Kuri's posture relaxed. "They're fine. I'm just teasing. What do you need?"

"A couple things," I said as Kuri led me inside to her office. I was pretty sure the building used to be a hotel, before being refurbished and repurposed. "We had that report for Raiko on how overgrown the city inside the quarantine had got-"

Kuri interrupted me. "Already finished."

"Oh. Good. Thanks. The other thing was those photos Hyen took. He said Kung had them, and I think there's a few in there that'd be helpful for our investigation."

"Hmm," Kuri said, her expression blank. "Wait here."

She left the office, leaving me to examine the nick-knacks on her desk and the horrendously outdated map of the world on the wall. It was artful, I guessed, with landmarks and unique regional things drawn in, but it didn't even have the United Republic on it, and the corners were labeled ' _ware, dark spirits be here_ ,' when everyone knew it was just more ocean.

After what felt like a long wait, but couldn't have been more than five minutes, Kuri returned with a large brown paper envelope. She handed it to me.

"Kung said not all of the shots developed correctly, but I hope what's in there helps."

"Thanks." I opened the envelope and glanced at the photos. Mostly they were of trees and crumbling buildings, but there were a few spirits thrown in as well.

"Can I ask you something?" Kuri asked.

I looked up. That question never boded well. "Sure."

"What's with the gloves?"

I smiled and faked a laugh, even as my insides froze. "I, uh... It's embarrassing. I burned myself. It's not pretty."

Kuri clicked her tongue in sympathy. "Well, if you're ever feeling out of practice, you know where to find me."

I nodded and thanked her for the offer and the photographs and took my leave, relieved everything had gone so smoothly.

####

Hyen hobbled into the office the next day to a war hero's welcome. He managed to shake off the gossipers better than I had, and after a few minutes the two of us were holed up at his desk, going over the quarantine photos.

"Now," Hyen said, "I'm not saying it wasn't a good idea, but why did you want to look at these? Besides admiring my artistic prowess."

"Just to get another look at the spirits we saw. Any of them could be the Snatcher."

"Or it could be one we didn't see. If anything, it's probably going to be something like that dark spirit that attacked us."

"Yeah, but what else are we going to do?" I said. "It's not like we have a ton of leads right now."

Hyen humphed. "And you better hope we don't get too many more."

I grunted in response.

"Is that all of them?" Hyen asked once we had looked through all the photos Kuri had given me.

"Kuri said some of them didn't develop correctly." Now that we'd gone through them, my suspicion was confirmed. The missing photos were the ones of the rotten thing in the shop—the body of a possessed human, unless Special Forces had more secrets hidden in the quarantine. I had to play dumb though, so as not to let my partner know something was up.

"The negatives, or just the photos?" Hyen asked.

"She didn't say." I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. "Now what?"

Hyen sighed and got out his ever-present box of cigarettes. Not to smoke, though, just to play with. "I really don't know. We've squeezed everything we can out of the kids' families." He frowned. "What about that firebender woman. You talked with her family, right?"

I groaned and buried my face in my hand. We were reasonably sure about the identity of the woman who had saved my life in the Cultural Center fire, but between preparing our report for Bei Fong and re-interviewing all the kids' families, I'd never done any serious research into her past and possible connections.

"Well," Hyen said, levering himself up with his crutch. "I guess I know what we're doing this afternoon."

####

Hyen and I made our way back to the office a few hours later with not a lot to show for our continued efforts. The woman, Izana, had been the owner of a jewelry store, which was now being run by her younger brother. She had also occasionally sold fortunes on the side, divining the future by pouring melted lead into water and examining the shapes it made. Hyen seemed to take it as a sign of her spiritual affinity, and spent an awful lot of time probing the brother for the ins and outs of the mystic art. But besides that, we didn't really get anything new to go off of.

"You don't really believe that fortune telling stuff, do you?" I asked as I navigated the city traffic. Hyen wouldn't be able to drive again until the cast came off.

"Well, sure." Hyen shrugged. "How is predicting the future different from bending or spirit projection? It's all magic, and who says you can't use magic for certain things?"

I took my eyes off the road for a moment to raise an eyebrow at my partner. "Bending isn't magic."

Hyen snorted. "Because setting things on fire by punching at them _isn't_ magic. Right."

"It's not! Bending is just manipulating your chi outside your body."

"And what is chi?"

"It's energy. Not magic. Everyone has it, even if they can't bend or can't feel it."

"Ehh, I'll take your word for it. But..." he trailed off, brow furrowed. "It doesn't make sense. If you have enough chi to be a bender, what dictates you being a specific kind of bender?"

"It's in your bones," I said, surprised he didn't know this. "My mother was from the Fire Nation, and she must have had some firebender ancestors. Same thing for Bolin on our dad's side."

"Sure. If we're talking about hereditary traits, that makes sense. But what I'm asking is why there's different kinds of benders at all. If you've got this extra chi, why can't you use it to do whatever you want? Why can't _you_ ," he pointed at me, "fly on a glider or pick up a block of wood without touching it?"

I opened my mouth to say ' _no one can bend wood_ ,' but that was kind of the point Hyen was making. "I don't know. Maybe there's different kinds of chi?"

"Seems like a cop-out to me. If having too much fire chi makes you a firebender, why couldn't someone have too much of multiple kinds? Why don't fire- and waterbenders exist? Excluding the Avatar, of course."

"If I knew that, I probably wouldn't be working for the police."

Hyen snorted. "Cop out."

I rolled my eyes.

####

The next morning I got up early to go for a run. I had just started getting dressed when something loud banged against my bedroom window. I yelped and hastily finished pulling on my shorts before throwing open the curtains, expecting to see a dead bird down in the alley below.

Instead, I found myself nose to nose with Jinora, who was balanced on the edge of the window frame, holding herself steady with the bundle of telephone cables and electric wires that ran up the side of the building. She blushed violently and I scowled.

"Can you not use the door?" I shouted through the glass.

"Sorry!" came the muted reply. "Can I come in?"

I considered telling her off and making her go down to the ground floor and walk up the stairs like everyone else, but for the sake of efficiency I set my vindictiveness aside and opened the window for her.

"I didn't realize this was your bedroom," she said as I closed the window again. "I was homing in on your energy, and-"

"Wait." I grabbed her by the shoulders and guided her into the hall so I could finish getting dressed in peace. Pants, undershirt, shirt and one glove. I took a moment open the window again and wipe Jinora's handprints off the outside of the glass before I went to see what in the world she wanted.

"You realize half the city is still asleep, right?" I said as I went to the kitchen and started making tea. Jinora followed, still Fire Nation red.

"Yes, but I figured you'd be awake, since you like to get up early."

I stared at her for a second, wondering how she knew that, before remembering the extended period of time we'd spent on an airship together during the search for new airbenders. She had a good memory.

"Why are you here?" I asked, returning my attention to the tea.

"Oh!" she said, like the purpose of her mission had completely slipped her mind. Maybe her memory wasn't that great after all.

"Here." She reached into some hidden pocket under the wing of her wingsuit and handed me a stack of papers clipped together. "It's what me and my mom and Opal have found so far about the... you know what."

"Huh," I said, surprised they had found so much so quickly. They were making better progress here than I was with the Snatcher case. "Thanks." I might not have been able to thoroughly use the department's resources, but I could at least use what I knew and maybe help weed out some dead ends.

"Of course," Jinora said. "I'm just glad we can help at all. It looks like they're taking care of themselves okay, but it's _so_ not fair what happened to them."

"No, it's not," I agreed, and started looking through the papers while the water boiled. I looked up half a second later to see Jinora standing awkwardly in my kitchen. Did she need something from me? Was there something else she wanted to tell me? Did she just want to socialize? Maybe she just needed to regain her strength before flying home again.

"Do you want some star fruit?" I hadn't planned on eating until after my run, but a piece of star fruit wouldn't hurt.

"Sure," she said, and I got one out of the icebox. Jinora made conversation while I removed the brown edges and cut slices into a bowl.

"Have you been meditating at all since our last session?"

"A couple times. Nothing special happened." It was a tough thing to make into a regular habit, but having Jinora pester me about it made it easier.

"At least you're trying. My dad suggested a couple different techniques we could try tomorrow."

"That's good." I deposited the last of the slices in the bowl just in time to take the kettle off the gas.

"How's your arm?" Jinora asked as I spooned dry leaves into a filter and started the tea brewing. I flinched a little at the reminder.

"Okay."

"You haven't been..." She trailed off, her eyes flicking to the knife on the counter. "You know..."

I scowled. "I haven't messed with it." It still felt _wrong_ , but that was getting easier to ignore as long as I kept the damage out of sight.

Jinora went red again and I sighed.

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm sorry. It's just... after seeing what happened to all those other people, I'm worried about what's gonna-"

"Let's not talk about that, okay?" Thinking about what might happen to me in the future kind of made me want to throw up, so I was doing my damndest to not think about it.

"Okay," she said in a quiet voice, and started nibbling on a star fruit. "How's Bolin?"

That was a more comfortable topic and Jinora and I made small talk about our families while we ate star fruit and drank tea. Eventually I managed to politely send her home, promising I would practice more before our next session. And so left in peace, I changed shirts, put on my shoes, wrapped up my arm and hit the streets.

In a way, running was a lot like meditation—it helped me empty my head and let me immerse myself in the present without worrying about the future or agonizing over the past.


	18. Chapter 18

18

Refreshed from my run, I walked into the office feeling better than I had in a while. I arrived just in time for Vani to hand over a new case, since Hyen and I were stuck for the moment on the Snatcher.

"Xurin. Age fifteen. First reported missing three days ago," Vani said. "This isn't the first time he's run off, but according to his parents, this is the first time he's stayed away for more than twenty-four hours. They say he's not mixed up in drugs or the triads, but..." She shrugged and set the file on Hyen's desk. "Pretty standard case. Good luck."

I thanked her and read over Hyen's shoulder as he flipped through the photos and pages. The kid in question was tall and skinny with a mess of curls that hung in front of his eyes. According to the report from the beat cop who had first handled the case, Xurin had first gone missing after school, and his parents had called the police early in the morning the next day. Asking the kid's friends and neighbors hadn't turned anything up, and he hadn't been admitted into the hospital.

Since it had been a few days and the missing kid hadn't turned up on his own, the case had gotten bumped up to Missing Persons, and now it was up to Hyen and I to figure out what had happened.

"Probably the triads," I said, once I finished skimming the report. "The Triple Threats are pretty active in that neighborhood."

"Maybe." Hyen sounded doubtful, and with reason—the kid was a non-bender. "I'll talk with the beat cop if you wanna double check the hospital."

I agreed and after an unfruitful telephone conversation with the hospital staff, Hyen and I piled into an unused cruiser and went to meet with Xurin's family.

The family lived in a block of buildings not too far from Headquarters that had seen better days. The bricks were crumbling, there was garbage on the street, and the windows on the upper floors were all boarded up, probably as a result of the Earth Empire attack. Xurin's mother, a thin and haggard looking woman, met us on the stoop and took us inside.

The family's apartment was large—at least three times as big as mine—but still not really big enough for everyone who lived there. Grandparents, babies, cousins, siblings and pets... There had to be at least twenty people squeezed into the six rooms, and I was painfully reminded of my own chaotic family, who I definitely needed to visit more.

"Now," Xurin's mother said, "don't you call me a bad mother because of it, but that boy is so quiet I wouldn'ta noticed he was missing if his sister hadn't said anything. You know how it is. One crisis after another, and I gotta keep all these mouths fed somehow."

She was a haggard looking woman with bags under her eyes and a lot of excess skin under her arms like she'd lost too much weight too quickly.

I nodded. "Of course. My partner and I have some questions for you, but first, would you mind showing us Xurin's room?"

The kid's mother agreed, and shooed three or four little kids out of a large bedroom packed with futons, chests of clothes and toys and the accumulated junk of too many people. With Hyen's help and some direction and commentary from Xurin's mother, we unrolled the appropriate bed and went through the kid's stuff.

"It can't be drugs, can it?" she said. "I _know_ I woulda noticed something before now if it was. Besides, my Xurin's so quiet, I don't even think he knows where to get that kind of stuff!"

"I hope you're right," Hyen said, pausing in his search. "But it's the quiet ones who are always the most surprising. You can never know what they're thinking if they never say anything."

"A mother always knows," she huffed.

Hyen gave her a small laugh. "I don't know about that. To this day there's one or two things I'm glad _my_ mother found out about. But I'm inclined to trust your inclination," he added to smooth things over. "Anything interesting, Detective Mako?"

I was sitting on my heels, looking over Xurin's notebooks from school. Frankly it was impressive the kid had stuck with school for so long. If a kid living in this kind of home could make it through secondary school, he had to be pretty smart.

"Some notes from school friends."

Hyen nodded and I collected the notes so I could go over them as we settled in for a longer conversation with the mother.

Unfortunately, she didn't have all that much to say about her missing son. Just that he was a good kid, always studying hard for school and taking care of his younger siblings. I asked her about the names I'd picked up from Xurin's notes, but she couldn't picture what any of them looked like or tell us where they lived.

"It's hard enough keeping track of my own kids, you think I'm going to remember every little street rat Xurin drags in?"

Hyen raised an eyebrow at that. "Does he bring friends over a lot?"

She pursed her lips. "Once in a while, I'm sure."

As we talked, I found myself getting more and more put off by the mother's blasé attitude. Sure, she had a lot of people to look after, but that shouldn't have affected how much she cared about her missing son.

####

Hyen and I stopped by the school's administration office to get some information on Xurin's teachers and classmates before splitting up. He stayed at the school to speak with the teachers (and not exacerbate his bum leg), while I struck out for the neighborhood to see if I couldn't find some of the kid's friends.

"You're pretty much their same age. Maybe they'll be more amenable to you," Hyen said with a smirk.

I didn't dignify that with a response and went out to do my job. After a couple false starts, I managed to find one of Xurin's friends—a girl called Rae who gave me some interesting insight.

"Yeah," she said, leaning against a lamppost and snapping her chewing gum between her teeth. "I guess you could say Xurin has enemies. But it's more like he just got on the wrong side of that kid Rangyi and his gang. Everyone says it's 'cause Rangyi didn't like him showing him up in class, but I think it's 'cause Xurin started being friendly with Rangyi's cousin, Taufu. His mom's Water Tribe," she added, as though this was an important detail.

I double-checked the appropriate characters for the new names and prompted the girl to flesh out her story.

"When did Taufu and Xurin start being friendly?" I asked, copying the girl's turn of phrase. "Has Rangyi done anything or threatened to do anything to either of them in the past?"

"Well, yeah," she said with a derisive snort. "But nothing the teachers could get mad about. Shouting and shoving in the hall, but nothing serious. I dunno when Taufu and Xurin started hanging out. Maybe a month or two ago?"

She gave me a few more little tidbits—the names and addresses of some of their mutual friends, the kinds of things Xurin liked to do. I thanked her and turned to go back to the car.

"Hey," Rae called after me. "How common is this kind of thing? Are you really gonna find him?" She'd acted aloof and cool before, but now there was some emotion in her voice.

I stopped and breathed out a puff of air, not quite a sigh. I'd heard Hyen answer this question before so I knew what to say, but this was one of those cases where the _how_ mattered more than the _what._

I faced the girl again. "More common than you might think. After Kuvira, the department got flooded with reports. But a case like this? Two per week, maybe more. Most of them either we solve or whoever's missing shows up." Whether they were alive or not was pretty hit-and-miss, but I didn't mention that. "Let us know if you hear anything, okay?"

Rae nodded, carefully turning over the business card I'd given her with the Missing Persons telephone number.

####

Taufu's street was a little nicer than the area where Xurin lived, but not by much. The whole neighborhood had been hit pretty hard, and there was still a lot of rubble lying around, presumably left untouched thanks to the spirit vines that were slowly taking over. To my surprise, it wasn't that hard to find Taufu's family—they were the only ones on the block that weren't one hundred percent Earth Kingdom.

I knocked on the family's door and was answered by a light-skinned man with sleepy, bloodshot eyes and several missing teeth. Immediately, his eyes went to the logbook in my hand and the radio on my hip. I was wearing street clothes, but those things were enough for him to identify me and set him on guard.

"What's this about?" the man asked, arms folded across his chest.

I got out my badge. "Detective Mako, Missing Persons department. Are you Taufu's father?"

The man wrinkled his nose at me. "Taufu's not missing."

"But one of his classmates is. Xurin." I showed him a ditto machine copy of the kid's photograph. "First reported missing three days ago. I heard he and Taufu were friends..." I trailed off as the man took the picture from me and examined it.

"Don't know him." He gave the picture back. "Taufu's usually back in time for dinner, a couple hours from now. You can come talk with him then." He rubbed his eyes. "Sorry I can't help, Detective. But I gotta get some sleep before work and I honestly never seen this kid before."

I nodded. "Thank you, sir. I'll be back soon."

The toothless man blinked and thanked me as well before closing the door. I took a few minutes to ask around the neighborhood some more, with some success. A couple different people said they might have seen a kid who looked like Xurin in the area, maybe hanging out with Taufu, though that might have just been what Hyen called _plausible memories—_ events that, as you suggested them, people could picture them in their heads and trick themselves into thinking those pictures were actual memories. It was surprisingly common.

I found my partner outside the school, laughing and having a cigarette with one of the teachers. I waved at them and Hyen held up a finger for me to wait. That was fine by me, since it gave me a moment to go through my notes and think about what I'd learned.

A minute or so later the passenger side door opened and Hyen got into the car.

"Any success?"

"Yeah," I said, and told him the story I'd heard from Rae about the bully and Xurin being friends with the bully's cousin.

Hyen nodded along, serious. "Fits with what the teachers said. Looks like he got in a fight with this Rangyi kid about a week ago. One of the teachers broke it up though. I got the kid's address. You want to talk with him next or the other friends?"

"Rangyi. Let's get it over with. We just have to be back at Taufu's in..." I checked my watch. "An hour and a half."

We found Rangyi in the lot of a semi-demolished building near his house, playing some kind of ball sport that involved a lot of jumping and tackling. He was big for his age, nearly as tall as me, but built more like Bolin. Height and muscle. The kind of kid the triads would want to snap up, bender or not.

We observed the kids for a second from the edge of the lot, and then Hyen stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled, shouted the boy's name. Rangyi sauntered over, wiping at a smudge of dirt on his face, trying to look tough while his friends watched.

"Who're you supposed to be?"

"I'm Detective Hyen, and this is Detective Mako. We understand you go to Kawokara Secondary School. We're looking for someone, a young man by the name of Xurin who goes there. Do you know him?" Hyen pulled out his own copy of Xurin's photo and showed it to Rangyi. "Went missing three days ago. No one knows where he is."

Rangyi sniffed and handed back the photo. "I don't know him. I mean, I've seen him at school, probably, but it's not like I knew his name. What was it? Shurikin?"

"Xurin," Hyen corrected. "When was the last time you saw him?"

"I dunno. There's a lot of people at school, you know? Am I supposed to remember every loser that walks by?"

Hyen didn't respond right away, and I took that as my cue to step in. "We know he's friends with your cousin, Taufu. Maybe you've seen them around outside school? Do you know where your cousin likes to hang out?"

Rangyi squinted at me. "Taufu's a stick. I don't know where he goes, and I don't gotta talk to you." He turned to go, but I grabbed him by the arm.

"Rangyi-"

He shrugged me off, and in the same movement, bent the ground under my and Hyen's feet.

"Oops, sorry!" he shouted as the two of us were knocked on our backs in a tangled heap. I jumped up again, fists raised, just in time to see Rangyi get swallowed up by a hole in the earth as his teammates high-tailed it out of the lot.

"Monkeyfeathers."

I helped Hyen to his feet.

"Are you okay?"

Hyen snorted. "I'm fine. But that kid won't be."

I raised an eyebrow. Never had I once heard Hyen suggest violence as a way to solve a problem, and the idea of him with a broken leg beating an earthbender was laughable. "Do you want me to-?" I trailed off, sliding into my cobra stance.

Hyen rolled his eyes. "He's going to jail, Mako. Come on." He limped towards the car, leaving me to catch up. I followed, giving the abandoned lot one last look.

"Why is he going to jail?" The kid might have been a jerk, but we didn't have anything to bring charges against him for.

"He was lying," Hyen said in his lecturing tone. "Did you notice how talkative he was?"

"Some people talk a lot."

"Yeah, but he sure had a lot to say for someone who didn't know anything. Making things up takes more brain power than telling the truth, so a lot of people will fill up the airtime to give themselves time to think and organize their lies. That's my theory, anyway," he added as we got back into the car.

"Mm," I acknowledged this as I considered the implications of Rangyi's lies. "So... he knows Xurin by name." I said after some thought.

"And he's guilty about it. He's been picking on Xurin, which isn't really enough in and of itself to make him want to lie to and assault us. So, he must have done something or was implicated in something more serious."

"Right." Now that Hyen said it, it was blindingly obvious.

"Finding him again won't be hard. We can probably bring him into Headquarters just for that little show right there." He nodded at the torn-up lot, marked with clear signs of earthbending.

"Right," I said again, and started up the engine.

####

With a little bit of time to kill before Taufu got home, Hyen and I did a couple slow circles of the block, looking for parking and things out of place. But besides the general state of disrepair and a few shady characters loitering in the lee of a building, nothing caught my eye.

Taufu's mother answered the door this time—the husband had left for work already but Taufu wasn't home yet. We talked with her about the case and how Hyen had broken his leg, trying to put her at ease while she made dinner for herself and Taufu. She reminded me of Korra's mom a little, at least in looks and style. I noticed a few minutes into the conversation she was missing a finger, but both Hyen and I had the tact not to ask about it.

Taufu arrived home maybe twenty minutes later and he froze the moment he saw us, eyes flicking to our radios and Hyen's baton, much like his father's had. I didn't hold it against him. That kind of awareness was important in a neighborhood like this.

"Taufu, I want you to meet Detectives Hyen and Mako," Taufu's mother said. "One of your classmates disappeared, and they're hoping you might know something about him. They're trying to find him."

"Oh," Taufu said, his dark cheeks going red. "I... I didn't know cops did that."

Hyen smiled. "Well, we try," he said, and got out his copy of Xurin's picture. "We heard you're friends with Xurin. When was the last time you saw him?"

Taufu gulped, looked at the picture for a brief second and handed it back. "Three days ago. At school." He looked and sounded like he might be sick.

"In class? Or after school got out?" I prompted, doing my best to sound non-threatening.

"Uh, after. Lately we've been going to the... the park after school. They've got some Tuj Lub courts." For a brief moment a smile crossed his face, and then vanished again.

"Did you go there that day?" I asked.

Taufu nodded. "For a little bit. But all the courts were full, so we left early, and... Yeah. I did some chores for Old Man Hong, then came home."

"He owns the corner store," Taufu's mother added.

I nodded and made a note of it. "And you didn't see him again after leaving the park."

"...No."

"Any thoughts on what might have happened to him?" Hyen asked.

Taufu just shook his head, lips pressed tight together, as though that would keep him from saying anything he shouldn't. Or from throwing up.

"Do you know if he was having any trouble at home? Anyone at school making things hard for him?" Hyen asked.

Taufu hesitated, then nodded. "I don't think him and his dad get along, but that's... it's not like he sees him much anyway. I don't think they ever fight."

Hyen nodded. "And at school?"

"I... I dunno." He glanced at his mother, then back at Hyen. "If you find him, then what happens?"

Hyen shifted his weight, adjusting the crutch under his arm. "Depends on what the situation is. If he needs medical help, we'll take him to a healer. If there's trouble at home, we'll find him a place to stay, see if we can't fix the problem. And if it's none of that—if he got lost or just needed some time by himself—we'll still do our best to make sure everything's really okay. And then things will go back to normal."

Taufu nodded. "But... What if..." He paused, mouth twisting. "I saw in the paper there's a spirit taking little kids. What if... even if it's not a spirit, but there's somebody who..." He looked up at me and Hyen, searching for something.

"If someone is responsible, we'll do our best to find them as well and bring them to justice," Hyen said.

"Mm," the boy said, keeping his mouth closed. The color he'd had earlier was now drained away.

"Taufu," Hyen said, fishing for something in his shirt pocket. "You have every right to worry about Xurin. But what you're doing right now? Talking with us? This is the biggest way you can help him." He handed the kid one of our business cards.

Taufu nodded, clutching the card in one fist, while hiding his mouth and nose in the other hand. Hyen caught my eye, then glanced at Taufu's mother, and then back to me.

I cleared my throat and tapped my pen against my book. "Ma'am?" I said in a low voice. "Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions in private?" I knew from experience and Hyen's coaching that it wasn't so much that the mother's answers were vital to the investigation, but that the son needed some privacy. He wanted to say something, but he was scared, and Hyen could better connect with him one-on-one than with three adults in the room, ganging up on him.

"Oh! Me?" the mother said, reluctant to leave her child alone.

"Yes, ma'am."

She made some confused noises, but I successfully managed to herd her into the foyer, closing the kitchen curtain behind us. I asked her a couple perfunctory questions and did my best to explain what I knew of the situation. More to cover the sound of the conversation in the kitchen than anything else, since Taufu would be more likely to talk if he didn't think he was being spied on.

We talked for a few minutes, until I heard Hyen call my name. I held up a finger for her to wait where she was, then ducked into the kitchen. Hyen had taken a seat at the table, broken leg propped out to one side, while Taufu had barely moved, still covering the bottom half of his face in one hand.

"You're gonna have to show Mako, not me, okay? I can't go far with my bum leg, and I don't think waiting for this to come off is a good idea." He rapped his knuckles on the cast.

Taufu made a strange noise, halfway between a laugh and a sob.

"It's gonna be okay. Anything you want Mako to keep secret, he'll do it as long as no one's breaking the law."

I nodded, doing my best to stick with Hyen's friendly, almost joking tone. "I memorized the book."

Taufu made his strange noise again, but didn't say anything. After some maneuvering on Hyen's part to make Taufu and his mother feel comfortable, I found myself walking down the street in silence half a step behind Taufu. I wanted to ask where we were going and what we would find there, but Taufu's trust in me was a tentative, fragile thing on loan from Hyen and any minuscule action on my part might break it.

We rounded a corner and walked alongside a ditch for a ways, stepping over and around the vines that had taken root there. Then with a running step, Taufu jumped across it and ducked inside an abandoned building on the other side. I took note of the address, knowing I would need it later, then followed, ducking through the crumbling doorway.

The building had been a bank once and any money that had been stored there was long since looted, but it still had an austere, enclosed sort of feeling. Thick walls, dim light, not much dirt. Still, my heart pounded in my chest, as the creeping vines reminded me too much of the spirit wilds quarantine.

"It was my cousin, Rangyi," Taufu said as we crossed the threshold. I was not surprised. "He tried to get Xurin to stop seeing me. But I didn't think he'd really do it, and now..." Taufu covered his mouth with his hand again, but continued to speak. "It's all my fault."

He led me to a decrepit stairway and up to what had once been accountants' offices.

"I tried to go to Chikchi, but he's not seeing _anybody_ right now, and we don't have the money..." He was crying now, silently, shaking a little with tears on his face. His use of _we_ rather than _I_ didn't escape me. He couldn't mean his parents—they weren't in the know. Xurin was still alive.

"Where is he, Taufu?" I was trying to be patient, but the situation was stressful and I couldn't help but think that every second wasted increased the chance of something bad happening.

Taufu took a breath and got enough control over himself to show me into one of the offices.

Xurin lay on a mat under the window, a blanket covering him from toes to chin. I strode past Taufu and knelt next to Xurin, tearing off one glove with my teeth while reaching for my radio with the other hand.

I pressed the back of my bare hand against the boy's forehead. It was burning hot and I could smell the infection on him without having to peel back the blanket. I did so anyway, so I could tell Hyen the extent of the damage. It was bad. A lot of crushing bruises, broken bones, a few sharper cuts surrounded by puffy red skin. He was breathing, but not conscious.

"Hyen, do you copy?"

There was a beat, and then the fuzzy reply. "Copy."

"Call an ambulance." I rattled off the address of the abandoned bank and the status of Xurin's condition, then waited for a confirmation before I set the radio back in its holster.

I looked up from the patient to see Taufu standing in the middle of the room, clutching his mouth with one hand, his stomach with the other, shaking.

"'S all my fault. I tried to get Chikchi, but he wouldn't see me, and I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't... There's no..."

"Hey." I interrupted his rambling. "Did you bend the rocks at him?"

Taufu looked at me like he'd forgotten I was there. "No. I... I can't. I'm not-"

"Did you foresee the future or read Rangyi's mind to see what he was going to do?"

Now he looked at me like I was crazy. "That's not-"

"Then it's not your fault."

He froze for a second, like he was struggling to understand what I'd said, then started to speak. "Rangyi _said_ he'd do this if he... if we didn't..."

I interrupted. "Bring me the water?" I pointed at a jug of water on the floor.

Taufu kept stammering, but he brought me the jug. The water inside _looked_ clean, but I didn't trust it—it had probably come from the ditch outside.

"People are complicated, and there are very few people out there who'd want to do _this_ to someone. You couldn't have known." I made sure to look him in the eye, hoping he would see the sincerity there.

For a split second I thought he believed me, but then the doubt and self-hatred closed back in.

"I _should_ have known." The poor kid must have been telling himself this for three days straight now.

"Wait here." I got up and quickly searched the room, looking for something metal. The doorknob. That would have to do. I closed the door, braced one foot against the wood and yanked the knob out of the rotting frame.

I turned back to the two boys to see Taufu kneeling next to his friend, gently brushing the damp curls away from his face. Xurin's eyes opened, he turned his head and managed to smile. His fingers moved under the thin blanket and Taufu slipped his hand under it to grip them. It was all horribly intimate.

I took a step and cleared my throat, reminding Taufu again that I existed.

He jumped, but didn't move as I crouched next to him.

"What's gonna happen?" he whispered.

I took a breath, half to summon my chi, and half to calm my own emotions. "The ambulance is coming, and Hyen and I are going to send Rangyi to jail." I held the doorknob in my gloved hand and carefully started up a two-finger torch. It wouldn't be long now before I had some clean boiled water and would be able to apply some of my very basic first aid.

I caught Taufu watching me from the corner of my eye, but I stayed focused on my task.

"He's gonna live?" Taufu whispered.

I paused for a second. "He's gonna live."

I didn't know if that was true, and even if it was, Xurin would be scarred for life. But in that moment, with Taufu holding onto those fingers like they were the only solid thing in the world, I couldn't tell him that.

* * *

 _AN: The real-world term for what Hyen and Mako are calling "plausible memories" is Reconstructive Memory. This is the theory that people's memories can by influenced by outside or internal sources after the fact. So in this scenario, Mako is aware that when he asks people "have you seen a kid with [X description]" the answers he gets are not going to be 100% reliable._


	19. Chapter 19

19

I spent the next day at work finishing Xurin's case report with Hyen and feeling very strange about it. Just before the ambulance had arrived, Taufu had asked me to keep the true nature of his relationship with Xurin secret, which went against my desire to have integrity and include all relevant information in my reports.

"Look at it this way," Hyen said. "This report is going to be used in the court case against Rangyi, who, intentionally or not, nearly killed Xurin. If we include this extra information, the jury could possibly side with Rangyi, even though Xurin's... personal inclinations _should_ have no bearing on his attacker's sentence."

I nodded. I still didn't feel right editing my report like that—it felt too much like taking justice into my own hands—but I understood Hyen's reasoning and trusted his expertise. For a minute the room was quiet except for the clatter of typewriters.

"What about that guy, Chikchi?" I asked as got to the next section. "Have you heard of him?"

At that, Hyen froze like he'd seen a ghost.

"What?"

Hyen shook his head. "Back alley healer. He's heading up his own triad now." He frowned at me. "They didn't go to him, did they?"

"No. Taufu said he tried, but Chikchi wouldn't see him."

Hyen sighed in relief, then frowned again.

"What's bad about that?"

"It's not bad. But Xurin is exactly the kind of patient Chikchi loves."

"Because he's a-"

Hyen rolled his eyes—a habit picked up from me, I was sure. "No. Because Chikchi's a world-class blackmailer. There has to be something else going on with him if he didn't take advantage of some poor kid throwing himself at his feet."

"Put it in the report?" Dealing specifically with the triads was outside our jurisdiction, but other people on the Force would be happy to have this information.

Hyen nodded. "Put it in Bei Fong's copy. I'll ask around while we're at it."

####

After work that day Opal picked up Bolin and I for an evening on the island. The flight was a short one, but it felt like it took forever as Opal and Bolin seemed to forget I was there as they sat together on Juicy's head.

I did my best to ignore them and extracted myself from their company before Juicy had completely touched down. Jinora met us on the bison landing strip, a lanky Water Tribe woman in tow.

"Mako!" Jinora skipped up to me, gave me a quick hug around my waist. "I'm so glad you could make it!"

"You're welcome." I patted her on the back, wondering if there had been any question of me _not_ making it.

Jinora giggled. "Mako, this is Insook, Professor Yedda's student. Do you mind if she sits in with us today?"

"I..." I said, distracted as I really looked at the visiting student for the first time. I'd first pegged her as lanky, but that wasn't really true. She was slender, willowy, with dark, soft skin. Graceful.

I coughed. "Yes, that's fine." I bowed and Insook bowed back, the loose collar of her tunic dipping low, revealing-

"Let's get going, shall we?" I said, squaring my shoulders and fixing my gaze on a point roughly two feet above everyone's heads.

Sun and Moon, it was like I'd turned into a teenager again. It was rare a girl affected me like this, so when it did, it hit me like rock-alanche. I recovered quickly though, and was able to make small talk with Jinora during our short walk to the meditation spot. We took our places at the edge of the patio overlooking the ocean, while Insook perched herself on a decorative stone a short ways away.

"She's just here to observe," Jinora said, eyes already closed. "Have you been practicing?"

I allowed myself one quick glance back at the visiting student before straightening my spine and bringing my focus to the task at hand. "I didn't yesterday, but before then, yeah." I probably _should_ have meditated yesterday, after all that craziness.

"That's okay." She paused and I felt an object brush my knee. I opened my eyes and took it—an Air Nomad necklace made of wooden beads, each with a tiny spiral etched into the surface.

"Today I thought we would try a different technique. Hold the beads in both hands. With each breath, pull one bead from left to right and say the word ' _om._ ' In your head or out loud, it doesn't matter. Let the word fill your being until it drowns out all other thought and sensation."

I did as she instructed and quickly slipped into the meditation, more easily than I could remember doing. It was like I was floating, weightless in a dark pool, just on the edge of grasping something I didn't understand, or remembering something I'd long forgotten.

Eventually I came back to myself. I hadn't made it yet, but I was getting closer. I blinked and stretched, cracking all the joints in my back.

"Can I keep this?"

Jinora was slow to respond, but she did answer. "It's my dad's. He said you can borrow it."

"Thanks." I slipped the necklace over my head and tucked it inside my shirt so it lay against my skin.

I gave Jinora a hand up and started walking back to the temple, enjoying the calm, empty-headed feeling the meditation had left me with.

"Hey, Mako?" Insook had dropped into step beside me.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you why you want to do this?"

I shrugged, and explained just how amazing and useful it would be to be able to do what Jinora did. "I know it's not the most spiritual reason, maybe it's sacrilegious or something, but..."

"No. It's a good reason. Usually people want to reconnect with loved ones they've lost. I like that you want something different."

She smiled at me and I forced a smile back. I _did_ want to reconnect with loved ones I'd lost. Only Korra and Asami weren't dead, just missing.

"You're very lucky to have found Jinora," Insook continued. "Most gurus would rather work on their own continued enlightenment than take on a student, but I think you and she both have a practical streak that's very refreshing. Or maybe that's just a UR thing, I don't know!" She laughed to herself.

"So, is this what you do?" I asked, trying to steer conversation away from myself. "Watch people meditate?"

The words had come out more condescending than I intended, but Insook laughed.

"I know, pretty exciting, right? I don't mean to sound like Miss Action Hero, but sometimes, I even get to read old scrolls and write journal articles."

I smiled. "I don't think that sounds boring. What do you study, exactly?"

"Do you want the long version or the short version?"

"Long version." We had some time to kill before dinner.

Insook grinned. "You're lucky I haven't gotten bored of explaining it yet," she said and launched into a wild and crazy theory about chi and cosmic energy and the spiritual capabilities of human beings. I didn't understand most of what she was saying, but her words rang with a sincerity and a passion that was hard not to get caught up in.

We must have done two whole loops of the island before I remembered I'd come here with Bolin and I'd been meaning to catch up with him. We rejoined the others just in time for a picnic dinner and an experimental flute and kitchenware ensemble performed by Ikki and Rohan. Insook, for whatever reason, decided to sit next to me, rather than Jinora or Pema or someone she already knew.

Dinner and the scheduled entertainment ended and Bolin pulled me aside as I helped Pema carry picnic things back inside.

"So," he said waggling his eyebrows and giving me a smarmy grin. "That Insook girl. You sure spent a lot of time alone together."

"Lay off, Bolin."

"What?" he said, putting a hand to his heart in mock offense. "I'm just saying that _maybe_ she thinks you're a cool guy and that _maybe_ you think she's a nice gal and that _maybe_ you should see if she'd like to do something cool and nice. You know, a date-type situation."

I pinched the bridge of my nose as Bolin rambled. "You talking about it does not make me want to ask her."

"C'mon, bro! What do you have to lose? I just want you to be happy like me and Opal are happy."

The problem was I did want to spend more time with her, and I'd been waiting for the right moment to ask her the whole evening. But now Bolin was bothering me and making me think of all the bad things that could happen.

Pema bustled over at that moment and took the dishes from under my arm. "You should ask her out. She's a sweet girl and she needs to spend some time outside the library."

Bolin smirked. "See?"

I threw my hands in the air and stalked away before anyone else could gang up on me. A little ways away from the picnic spot, Jinora and Ikki were playing with Rohan in the grass. I sat down with them, watching the toddler trying to play catch. I had a little notebook in the back pocket of my pants and I took a moment to get this out and carefully write down my name and a string of numbers.

"You know where Insook went?" I asked the girls.

Standing on her kness, Ikki put her hands on her hips and scowled at me. "Who wants to know?" It was a scarily accurate imitation of a triad boss.

I didn't have to answer her though, as Jinora pointed up at the temple without looking up from what she was doing. "On the second floor balcony."

I thanked her and walked up the temple steps, carefully folding the slip of paper so as not to smear the ink. As I walked, I couldn't help but think about Taufu and Xurin, about how they'd decided to be together despite the threats of an angry earthbender, while the worst risk I faced was having Bolin harass me. Besides, wasn't this part of the whole meditation thing? Living in the _now_ and not caring about the future?

I found Insook where Jinora said she'd be and stood with her in silence for a minute, enjoying the view and the company.

"Thanks for the walk," I said. "I gotta go. You know, work tomorrow. But..." I handed her the page from my notebook. "Here."

She unfolded the note and smiled. "Thanks."

Not quite sure what else to do, I gave her a small bow and went back outside to find a ride home.

####

"There he is! Go! Go!"

Hyen shouted at me and I hit the gas as Rangyi bolted for an alleyway. In a move I'd learned from Asami, I threw the break, wrenched the wheel and spun the car to a stop between my target and his destination.

As I flung open the car door Rangyi stomped, launching himself over the cruiser and into the alley beyond. I followed suit with a flame-powered jump, landing on my feet as Rangyi smashed into the ground in front of me.

A wave of earth rolled outward, shaking the car and the buildings, but I kept my balance. I swung out, bright and blinding, flames eating up the air in the enclosed space. Rangyi ducked and blocked with his forearms then dove and jammed one hand into the street, sending a row of spikes to trip and impale me. I rolled out of the way and swept a leg out, trying to use the kid's tripping tactics against him.

Rangyi jumped over my leg and time seemed to slow for a second as Hyen's baton spun through the air and smashed into his head with enough force to send him sprawling on his back. I wasted no time in rolling Rangyi onto his front and cuffing his hands behind him.

"Rangyi, you are under arrest for attempted murder," I said as I hauled him to his feet. I read him his rights, stuffed him into the back of the cruiser and cuffed his ankles, as per standard earthbender procedure.

"Nice throw," I said as I took my spot in the driver's seat.

Hyen snorted as I handed him back his baton. "I do what I can. And if I can minimize the amount of time I have to deal with you snorting like a hog-monkey in public, the better."

"You're an ass," I said, realizing it had been far too long since I'd put any real effort into my bending.

####

Being prepared is an essential part of life, so there were a few things I always kept in the storage compartment on my bike. A few tools, a bottle of water, a spare helmet, an extra gi. I double-checked to make sure the last was in there and went on my way.

Master Akoza's Firebending academy was just how I'd left it—warm, gaudy and busy. I paid for a locker at the desk, changed my clothes and went out to one of the courtyards to warm up while I waited for the open sparring session to begin.

To my surprise, Sergeant Kuri was already there as well. I shouldn't have been surprised though—she was just as much a regular as I was.

"Mako." She bowed to me.

"Sparring tonight?"

"Mm-hmm." She made a vague affirmative noise and instantly I kicked myself. _Of course_ she was here to spar. Why else would she be here?

I nodded. "See you there." With that I left to find an open space to warm up by myself. Much to my relief, Kuri didn't follow and I was free to do my exercises in peace.

She met up with me again though as we filed into the dirt paved sparring courtyard a few minutes later.

"What do you say? Wanna show these schmucks what real firebending looks like?" she asked, standing on her toes to speak directly into my ear.

I flinched and stepped back. "Sure." It wasn't nice of her to call the other participants schmucks, but I didn't comment.

An instructor arrived reviewed the safety procedures, a bucket of water and a bottle of aloe on hand.

There were some rules about what kinds of forms and holds were allowed, but the aim was simple: the first one knocked down or forced out of the ring loses. Kuri stood next to me and watched as a pair of wiry, whited haired old men entered the ring and bowed.

"What happened there?" Kuri nodded at my arm, wrapped entirely in clean white bandages. It had taken some time, but I figured this was a safer and more flexible option than long sleeves and gloves.

"Got hurt." I flexed my hand, trying to shake off the feeling of _this doesn't belong to me._

"Did you see a doctor? Are you cleared to be here right now?"

I nodded, using what I knew about how to identify liars to mask my own untruths—simplicity, no hesitation. "Yeah, it's fine."

"Remind me again, what happened?"

I shrugged. "Dark spirit. It doesn't hurt, but I'm seeing a specialist soon." If Tenzin ever decided to follow through and call his sister for me, at any rate.

Kuri raised a sculpted eyebrow. "Then why wrap it?"

"Just in case," I said. Other, better answers sprang to mind even as the words left my mouth, but I resisted the urge to correct myself.

"Hmm. I'm not gonna go easy on you," Kuri warned.

"Please don't." After my disappointing showing against Rangyi, I needed all the practice I could get.

The match in progress ended as one of the old firebenders was forced outside the ring. Another pair entered and I watched, intrigued, as one of the benders managed to send out flames with a strange greenish tinge at their core. I'd always thought doing different colors was more of a party trick than anything else, but maybe there was some other merit to it? It was something to look into.

"You know," Kuri said, again invading my personal space, "I've been wondering something."

"Oh?"

"Why aren't you with Special Forces? A bender like you can't enjoy being a desk jockey."

"What does that mean?"

Kuri tossed her head, shaking a stray hair from her eyes. "I mean, don't you think it's kind of a waste? You fought alongside the Avatar, for heavens' sake. Don't you think you'd be doing more good if you were _out there_ , actually fighting crime, not sitting at a typewriter all day?"

I frowned at that, debating with myself which of Kuri's assertions was the most incorrect. The fact that as a detective I was actually saving lives, and not just writing tickets? The fact that I spent a lot of time outside the office, talking with people and doing research? The fact that—

"Just look at that partner of yours. That's gonna be you in a couple years if you're not careful." She stuck her hands out in front of her, holding an imaginary belly.

I scowled. Hyen wasn't that fat. I opened my mouth to set her straight, but the instructor shouted over anything I was about to say, ending the current match.

"Next!" the instructor called. By now, some stragglers had showed up, a group of teenagers who looked like they had just got out of school.

"What do you say? Let's give 'em a show," Kuri said and marched into the ring. I took my place across from her and bowed, doing my best to be calm and not let my irritation rule me.

I waited, facing my opponent edge on, forward arm extended and my back arm tucked in close to my stomach, providing balance and gathering chi. Kuri struck first, swinging one leg out in a broad arc. I dissipated with my forward hand and pivoted, roaring and pouring forth the chi I'd gathered in my back hand. A bloom of flames engulfed half the circle, but Kuri was already out of the way, spinning with the momentum of her kick to land on her other foot and blast me again. I blocked with my forearms and recovered my stance in the same instant Kuri did, effectively resetting the match.

We circled for a few steps, each waiting for an opening.

Again, Kuri struck first and I recognized the Seven Stars form. A distraction. Bright, harmless flames filled my view and I made a guess as to what her next move would be and stepped to the right. Her kick struck nothing but air and I went low, going for a grab to throw her off balance. But as I ducked to lift and throw her by her raised leg, she jumped, sliding over my back. Trailing flames caught the back of my neck, hot for a split second, and then we were both standing again, facing off across the ring.

I took half a second to breathe, to pull air and energy back into my body, and focused on my drive. I couldn't let her win, not after insulting me and my partner.

"Huah!"

I put everything I had into the blast, the force of it pushing me back towards the edge of the ring.

Then something twinged in my arm, a twisting sensation of numbness and discomfort. I pulled back, checking my arm to make sure I was okay, and then I was on my back, Sergeant Kuri poised above me, her fist pointed at my face. I blinked, surprised, and she opened her hand to help me to my feet.

Kuri tried to discuss the match with me, offering a rematch, but I brushed her off, changing out of my gi and driving home somewhat in a daze. It wasn't until I was in the safety of my own apartment that I could finally unwrap the bandages.

"Oh, no."

The scales were spreading.


	20. Chapter 20

20

What did it mean that the scales were spreading? Before work I'd taken a pen and outlined all the patches in ink to see if they grew over the course of the day, but that wouldn't tell me anything until I went home. I'd first gotten possessed on the first, and it was already the tenth of dàshu. So why yesterday, during my sparring match with Sergeant Kuri?

Maybe it was the physical exertion. Yesterday was the first time I'd broken a sweat since... That day I'd gone running. So scratch that.

Could it have been from the bending? That didn't seem right either. I'd used my bending other times between the first and then—lighting the stove at home, finding my keys in the dark, taking down Rangyi, et cetera—and I hadn't felt any changes then. Or maybe I just hadn't noticed them? I'd been working hard to not think about the whole thing.

I rubbed at the bridge of my nose, trying to think of other causes. Something to do with my spiritual energy and the energy at Akoza's? Or the position of the sun?

"Mako!" A ball of crumpled paper hit me on the head.

I blinked and resisted the urge to incinerate the offending object. "Huh?"

"I said, we've got a new case,"Hyen said, sounding exasperated.

"What? Who?" I was on my feet in an instant, worries forgotten as I patted myself down, checking to make sure I had everything I needed to hit the street. Hyen waved me over to his desk, clearly in less of a hurry.

"Ummaki. Age ten, from Baima."

"Huh." I dragged a chair over and sat, taking a look at the binder Hyen had been examining. "That's not our jurisdiction, is it?"

Baima was the town that had sprung up on the far side of the Silk Road Bridge. If asked, the residents would probably say they lived in Republic City, but in reality the town was a separate entity with its own mayor and police and parking regulations.

"It's a gray area. The whole thing is complicated." Hyen rotated the binder towards me so I could see the page he was looking at.

A photo had been pasted into one corner of the page, showing a grizzled Water Tribe man with long, white dreadlocks and an eye patch. Next to it, in neat calligraphy, someone had written: _Chikchi, presumed triad boss,_ followed by a pair of characters I was unfamiliar with.

"Death Whale?" I guessed, based on the radicals I could pick out.

"Aarluq-kaik," Hyen corrected. "But you've got the meaning basically right. That's the name of the triad. Have you heard of them?"

I grunted and shook my head, scanning Chikchi's rap sheet. Waterbender, healer, restaurant owner. Numerous fines for sanitary law violations, a couple of assault charges (later dropped), jail time for repeatedly practicing healing without a license. Widower, with four children whose unpronounceable names were listed towards the bottom of the page.

While I read, Hyen told me what he knew about the triad. "They're also called the Triad of Baima, since they're really the only ones active in the area. Pretty standard operations. Protection rackets, blackmail, probably laundering money through that restaurant Chikchi owns. Not a heck of a lot of violence, since they're pretty isolated over there on the mainland, but Chikchi's still the scariest dude you'll ever meet."

I paused in my reading to raise an eyebrow at Hyen, wondering if he was comparing Chikchi to the scary dudes _I_ had met, because my standards for scary were higher than average.

"He..." Hyen shuddered. "He cuts pieces off the people who can't pay him."

I wrinkled my nose. "That's gross."

"More like horrifying."

"Mm." I grunted in agreement, conceding the point after I pictured Chikchi cutting pieces off of me or someone I knew. It would depend on the size and location of the piece, but the thought left me reasonably horrified.

"So. Ummaki?" I prompted.

"This is where it starts to get complicated."

"She's his daughter?" I guessed.

"Granddaughter. I went ahead and called my friend Lee from Baima's Department of Investigations after writing up the report for Xurin's case. According to him, Ummaki went missing about a week and a half ago, probably around the second or third of this term. She didn't get reported missing until a couple days ago though, when one of the parents of one of her friends went to the Baima police."

"Not her own parents?"

"No. Chikchi's a total patriarch. No one talks to his family without talking to him first, and _he_ won't talk with the Baima police, so..."

"Okay," I said, already thinking of ways to get in touch with the girl's parents without letting Grandpa Gangster know.

"But—and this is where it actually gets complicated—he _might_ talk to me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because, I _may_ have used his services. A couple of times."

I nearly berated him for doing something as stupid as dealing with a triad boss, before remembering I'd done equally stupid things myself.

"What does that mean? Are you compromised?"

"No. It means he _thinks_ I'll look the other way if he tells me to. But one, our 'deal' started like thirteen years ago, and two, Bei Fong already knows all the dirt he has on me anyway."

"Dirt?"

Hyen rolled his eyes. "You're familiar with my dirt, Mako."

"Oh. Right." I blinked. "So," I said, trying to make sure I was interpreting the situation correctly, "you want to go in and ask Chikchi to let you talk with Ummaki's parents, with the understanding that Chikchi _thinks_ that if he or one of his thugs is implicated, you won't do anything about it. But in reality you will."

Hyen nodded. "If it's worth it. I only get to play this card once, and Bei Fong's already agreed that it's only _really_ worth it if we can take down Chikchi and the Aarluq-kaik for good."

"Which we could if it turns out Chikchi's implicated in whatever happened to Ummaki."

"But he might not be. And that means we need to maintain the illusion of him holding some sway over me."

We went back and forth on the topic for the rest of the day, debating the best way for Hyen to preserve his trump card, while also keeping him safe and making headway on the Ummaki case. Eventually we dragged Bei Fong into the conversation, and Hyen's contact in Baima, and together we hashed out a plan.

####

I sat at home with the curtains closed, examining the ink splotches on my arm. Thanks to the warm weather and insulating bandages, the well defined marks I'd made that morning had now become a blurred, sweat-stained mess, but I was close to certain that nothing had changed since yesterday night.

I had just started re-marking and re-wrapping my arm when the telephone rang. I yelped and grabbed my shirt to drape over my arm and hide the damage before coming to my senses and realizing the person on the other end of the line had absolutely no way of seeing what I was doing.

Embarrassed and groaning at my own stupidity, I threw on my shirt and got up to answer the phone, wondering who might be trying to get ahold of me. Grandma? She had a hard enough time remembering my name these days, let alone my telephone number. Hyen? Something new might have come up in the Ummaki case. Or Jinora, with new information on the possessed?

"This is Detec- Mako speaking. Hello." I so rarely answered the telephone at home, my standard greeting from work just kind of slipped out.

"Oh! Hello! Is this a good time?" A female voice, smooth and accented.

I peeked at the clock on the wall. "Yes?"

"Oh, good. You gave me this number, and I really don't know how this is supposed to work, but I thought I'd at least give it a try."

I blinked, piecing together who my caller was. "Insook?"

"Sorry! I should have said."

"No that's fine. I just-" I cut myself off before I could tell her I'd forgotten about giving her my number. "How are you?" Not the smoothest recovery, but it worked.

"I'm doing good! I've finally started on my research, and my students are all really keen."

"Huh," I said, trying to wrap my head around the idea that she was teaching classes, and yet still a student herself. "What are you teaching?"

"Oh, just the introductory course," she said, and went on to explain her curriculum and the meetings with her professors and supervisors, how she was looking for the right people to do experiments on... It was all very interesting and safe, unlike the things I was dealing with. It was nice just to listen for a while and think about problems that didn't put me or anyone else in danger.

Insook didn't have all that much time to talk, but we made plans to meet up and continue the conversation later, in person.

It wasn't until after I had hung up the phone that I realized I was going on a date, and had no clue what I was supposed to do. Somewhat reluctantly, I grabbed my helmet and keys, wondering why Bolin couldn't join the rest of the modern world and buy a telephone service.

####

Of the ways I could spend the early morning before work, practicing meditation felt far and away like the least productive thing I could be doing. I just as easily could have gone in early and done more research into the Aarluq-kaik triad, or gotten in some exercise gym, or read up on energy and spirituality to prepare myself for my continued conversation with Insook...

 _Breathe._

I shifted in my seat and took a brief glance at the park. It was warm and sunny and green, with people milling about, taking photographs and walking their dogs. I closed my eyes again and focused on the string of beads in my hands, carefully feeding one bead at a time through my fingers as I tried to wash away all other thoughts with _om_.

But did I really need to do this? If the Universe needed me to be able to do spirit magic, wouldn't it just guide me somehow, like it had before? Give me some series of signs—do this, do that, and bam! Spirity powers.

I knew meditation was a worthy activity in its own right, but I wasn't feeling particularly distressed or angry at the moment, just kind of overwhelmed. There was so much I needed to work on—this newest case, my date with Insook, the possessed, my own physical well being... Maybe it would be smarter to lay off the spiritual training for now.

I checked my watch. Twenty-five minutes before I had to leave for work. Not really enough time to get anything else done. I might as well try to clear my mind and relax.

 _Breathe._

Maybe I should have done this at home, where no one could spy on me.

 _Breathe._

Maybe-

Something cold and wet pressed into my face. I gasped and pushed myself away from the offending object—the nose of a big, gray dog.

"Ugh. Hello."

The dog whined and bowed to me, like it wanted to play. I was never too sure what to think about dogs. They were uncannily smart, and I wondered if this one knew I didn't really feel like meditating and was offering me an out.

Somewhere behind me, a whistle sounded and the dog bounded off. I wiped my face, got up and brushed the dirt off my pants.

"Sorry!" the dog's owner shouted at me. I gave her a nod and a smile and started heading back to the office, thinking about spirits and signs and dogs and...

"Ha!" I clapped a hand to my forehead, oblivious to how crazy I must have looked. How had I not thought of it before? If anyone could find Korra, it was Naga.

Silently, I thanked the Universe.


	21. Chapter 21

21

"Ready?" Hyen asked.

I nodded, the muscles in my face tight. I still didn't like the plan, but it was what we were doing. Our chance to help take down the Triad of Baima.

I started up the cruiser and we bumped our way across the city, Hyen keeping up a running monologue about my poor driving skills.

" _You should have turned back there. If we got on the raised expressway-_

" _Slow down! Pedestrians._

" _Look out for those vines._

" _You realize this is a twenty-five zone, and you're only going twenty. We're going to miss the ferry."_

I gripped the wheel, remembering the good old days when Hyen did all the driving. _Three more weeks, and then the cast comes off_ , I reminded myself.

Up ahead, the ferry was pulling into the dock, the twisted remains of the bridge still rusting in the bay. I showed my badge to the officer directing traffic and we got bumped to the front of the line. While we waited for the boat to load and make its trip, Hyen stepped out onto the deck for a smoke, while I folded my legs up onto the driver's seat and tried meditating again for the second time that day.

####

We parked in front of a low, brick building, where we met briefly with our Baima counterparts, double-checked our equipment, and shuffled cars before making our way to _Hen And Friends_ , Chikchi's sub-par greasy spoon.

I rode with Daisy, the Baima beat cop who had been volunteered to help maintain my cover. Rather than take our cruiser or one of the Baima cop cars, we used Daisy's personal satomobile, a small, nondescript blue-gray thing with cheap good luck charms glued to the dashboard.

Meanwhile, Hyen got a ride from his contact in Baima's Department of Investigations and some waterbending muscle, who would surreptitiously drop him off behind the restaurant and then keep an eye on the building from some hidden location.

Daisy had a handheld radio hidden in her oversized purse in case we needed to communicate with the stakeout group, and in theory we were in a great position to notice any disturbances—shouting or fighting in the back, weird behavior on the part of the staff—but there were two problems with the whole thing.

First: While Hyen was _probably_ capable of smooth talking Chikchi into letting him speak with Ummaki's parents, it was _possible_ that Chikchi might take issue with something my partner said and kick him out.

Second: I didn't know what was going on.

I knew the second point shouldn't have bothered me so much, but the feeling of being out of the loop on something I was supposed to be part of just rubbed me the wrong way. Hyen would fill me in later of course, but being told what happened was a pale shadow of actually living it.

But, there was no way Chikchi would meet with with the two of us, so after getting radio confirmation that Hyen was inside, Daisy and I pulled up to the restaurant. Everything about it was average. The reasonably clean windows, the boring blue-and-brown décor, the greasy film that clung to the walls and tables.

There were a few other customers inside. Every one of them was Water Tribe, which made me wonder if they were all Chikchi's thugs, or just a representation of the demographics of the neighborhood. No one gave us a hard time though, and Daisy and I snagged a booth near the kitchen. We took our sweet time in deciding what we wanted, and while we waited, Daisy did an excellent job of keeping a conversation going. Mostly she was blathering about the errands she'd run and the dreams she'd had, but I was grateful for it because it saved me the effort and let me worry in peace.

Our food arrived a little while later and Daisy and I picked at it, avoiding the more mysterious lumps of what was supposed to be fried arctic hen. The fake conversation continued and I made up a dream about finding a sea serpent egg that Daisy proceeded to interpret.

"Hey," a voice said. I looked up from the photos to see a Water Tribe youth leaning against the booth next to ours. He his head towards the kitchen door. "The chief wants to see you, fire guy."

I glanced at the sparse restaurant patrons, then pointed at myself. "Me?"

"Yeah, you."

I considered my options. If I declined, would that be keeping my cover, or blowing it? Since this kid was talking to me, our cover was probably already blown. Maybe I was just rationalizing my way into going because I wanted to know what was going on, and leaving, regrouping or giving up was the better choice. I glanced at Daisy, wondering what she should do.

"She stays," the youth said.

Maybe it was a bad idea, but I needed to know what was going on. I got to my feet, trying to find the right headspace for lightning. If this went belly up, I was going to need every advantage. Hopefully Daisy would do the smart thing and radio Stakeout and the Baima Headquarters to get backup en route.

The youth led me through the noisy, grimy kitchen to a back room, dark and hot and humid, with an ancient boiler in one corner and pipes slithering across the floor and burrowing into the walls like vines. He pulled back a curtain from a doorway near the boiler and jerked his head for me to enter. As I pushed past, I noticed the ring finger on the kid's hand was missing entirely. Just an empty gap where it should have been. I shuddered, remembering what Hyen had told me about Chikchi, and only now making the connection between that and the missing finger on Taufu's mother's hand. She had come through this doorway before, and that was how her son had known about the back alley healer.

The new space was like a throne room. There was a raised platform at the far end of the room, where an old man in a blue tunic sat on a stained velvet love seat, flanked by attending thugs. Wisps of smoke from the old man's pipe filtered through the air and one of the thugs subtly directed streamers of fog, halfway between art and menace.

Hyen stood in the middle of the room by himself, leaning on his crutch. Not knowing what else to do, I went and stood next to him, half a step behind, but Hyen didn't move, his gaze fixed on the old man.

I took another look at him. He looked different from the man in the dossier photo—he was older, white hair shaved to stubble and eye patch missing, revealing one blank, dead eye—but I could see now they were one and the same. Chikchi.

He seemed to be waiting for something, so I bowed, hoping that was it. Chikchi inclined his head back, barely enough to count as a bow.

"What are you?" he asked, his voice high and sing-song-y.

"Uh," I said, not sure how to respond to the strange question.

He raised one finger for me to be silent, staring off into the middle distance, his one functional eye unfocused.

"A proud and cautious thing," he mumbled to himself. "Lonely. Opaque. Tempered by fire and impure. A crucible? Not quite, but that'll do." He looked me in the eye. "You'll do."

I shuddered. I'd heard the phrase _piercing gaze_ before, but I'd thought it was purely metaphorical, not describing a real physical sensation.

"My granddaughter was taken by a spirit," Chikchi said without prelude.

My heart skipped a beat, and I scrambled for my logbook as he continued speaking.

"The day of the full moon, on the bank of the river, where the water stills. I was teaching her the art, when a business matter arose, and I left her there to practice. As I returned, I saw a shadow descend from the air and pull her into some unseen space."

I jotted down the key words, hoping I could remember the rest later and looked up. Chikchi puffed on his pipe, looking bored. I couldn't see Hyen's face from where I was standing, but tension radiated off of him from the set of his shoulders and the way the muscles stood out in his neck.

"Where specifically was this?" I asked. "Do you know what time of day? Was anyone else with you?" I kicked myself mentally for the last question. The man was a triad boss. He wasn't going to like me pumping him for the names of his subordinates.

Chikchi took a long pull from his pipe before answering. Something in his dead eye twitched and my own eye twitched in involuntary response.

"Only Yue was there, on her way to the sea. We were near the old mine road, where it makes its crossing."

 _Yue: Person, moon or spirit?_ I wrote as I wracked my brain for the next question. Hyen wasn't saying anything, and I didn't know if this was because he wanted me to take lead, or if Chikchi had told him to be quiet.

"What makes you think this shadow was a spirit?"

Chikchi stared at me, disgust written on his face.

"You think I'm blind, Crucible? You think I cannot see the world folding in on itself? The runs, the snags. Put your ear to the ground and listen. Even the Frogman's foul tadpoles can hear it, if any of them are inclined to care." He tipped his chin at me. "You will see it soon, once the smoke clears from your eyes."

I stared at him. I knew I was supposed to be taking the man seriously, that he was an evil, mutilating gangster, but the way he sat there, smoking his pipe and talking like a spirit, I just couldn't.

"Frogman?" I repeated.

Just in front of me, Hyen made a noise, strangled and high-pitched. I peered at him, spotting something crusty and white at the corner of his ear. Salt?

Slowly, his head swiveled to look at me, his mouth packed with ice, his eyes open so wide I could see the whites all the way around.

"Guh!" I jumped, and in the same instant, a spray of water soaked me head to toe. From his seat on the platform, Chikchi clenched one fist and raised his arm. The water on me turned to ice, lifted me in the air in by the places where it stuck to my skin and clothes.

I took a breath to breathe fire and melt the ice, but before I could act, one of Chikchi's thugs moved and water filled my mouth, freezing solid and wedging my jaw open. For one crazy moment I was facing down Amon again and I reached for the cold emptiness of lightning. Nothing mattered. Not the fact that I could barely control my own body, nor that Korra, _no Hyen_ , and I were about to, to...

Icy talons gripped my head, forced me to look Chikchi in the eye as he stepped off his platform. He stopped just in front of me, pulled his pipe from between his lips and blew a lungful of smoke in my face.

I coughed through my nose, throat prickling and my vision going blurry as my eyes filled with tears. While I struggled to control myself, Chikchi just stood there, swaying on the spot, like he was enjoying some hallucinatory music. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, the bright white of Chikchi's dead eye turning into foggy smears every time he moved his head.

"I've noticed," Chikchi said, "that benders tend to have a stronger affinity for the occult, but only rarely do we unlock or even notice this potential. At least in these heathen lands."

As he talked, my vision cleared, but the ghostly white smears persisted, something more than just a trick of the eye. A spirit, wound around his head and through it. _Possessed._ But no, he couldn't be. Aside from his dead eye, there was nothing wrong with him. Then what?

Chikchi laughed and the ghostly smears vanished. "Pathetic. You are not as blind as the Frogman, but you still cannot see the flood that is coming." He gave a nod to one of his thugs and I fell to the ground, sopping wet.

"You will go to the spot where the water stills and find nothing," Chikchi said as I found my feet again, bristling with anger. I extended two fingers, trying and failing to reach for the emptiness.

"Mako, don't," Hyen hissed, grabbing my arm.

"You will talk to my daughter and the pathetic sea slug she calls a husband and you will learn nothing. Nothing! Because _you_ do not know your culture and _you_ are lazy and allow illusions to rule your thoughts." Chikchi took a pull from his pipe and waved at me with a limp wrist. "You may go. Frogman, your debt is forgiven. Do not contact me or mine after this is done."

"Of course." Hyen tried to pull me towards the door, but I shook him off. I was _not_ lazy. I had worked hard, so hard, to get where I was. I wasn't going to let Chikchi kick me out like some stray cat after he'd dragged me in here. I was _better_ than him.

"Sir," I said, bowing to the crazy old man. "My partner and I _will_ find your granddaughter."

"Fah." He waved away my words as he turned to go back to his seat. "The girl is gone, but her spirit will return to the tribe. If you want useless sentiment, talk with her father."

He handed a scrap of paper to one of his thugs, who stuffed it into my shirt pocket as he herded Hyen and I back through the boiler room and out into the alley behind the restaurant. The back door slammed shut behind us with a clang.

I stared at the door for half a second, trying to center myself, then gave up.

"What the hell was that?" I waved at the backside of the building, stray sparks spitting uncontrolled from my fingers. "What in blazes did you _do_?"

"Me?" Hyen pointed at himself.

"Yeah, you, Mr. Social Guru. Obviously you did something to piss him off, _and_ you told him you brought backup!"

"Excuse me? Did you not notice the man's _clearly_ insane? And I didn't say anything about backup! _Someone_ obviously wasn't covert enough."

"Hey! I can't help it if I don't look Water Tribe. And since you didn't think that was a problem..." I reigned myself in, started pacing in the dirt lot behind the building to burn off some energy. "Why did you think this was a good idea?"

Hyen gave me an exasperated look. "It's a chance to take down the Aarluq-kaik."

"But you _knew_ Chikchi's screwy and a bender and he might have crazy spirit powers, and you still went to see him by yourself, with a broken leg."

"Yup." He glanced between the building and some spot down the alleyway. "Let's get out of here. Lee's just parked behind those bushes."

"Why?" I asked as we crossed the alley.

"Because he's screwy and a bender and he might have crazy spirit powers. He's not a nice guy, Mako, and I thought my chances were pretty good."

"But he could have killed you!"

Hyen scowled. "And so could you." The way he said it made it sound like that was an actual, real possibility.

I stopped in the middle of the street, offended.

"Look," he said. "Maybe I pushed for this more than I should have if I had known all the details, and that's on me, but, honestly, Chikchi didn't used to be that crazy. I haven't exactly been in regular contact with him, but-"

"Hold up. _I_ could kill you?"

Hyen looked me up and down. "Yeah, sure. I know you won't, but you could."

"How is that an excuse for you seeing Chikchi on your own?" I waved at the restaurant, again letting off accidental sparks. "Thinking that because _I_ could kill you and I haven't, Chikchi won't either since he's a bender too?"

Hyen backed off a step. "Spirits, Mako! Calm down. No one got killed, no one got close to being killed. Things didn't go how we planned, but we basically got what we wanted."

Being told to calm down did not make me want to be calm. I was angry, mostly at Chikchi, but also at Hyen and I didn't know why.

"Lee's waiting. Come on."

Right. The case. I glanced at my fist, painfully aware of how close I was to losing control. I breathed, reached yet again for the emptiness to shut off the anger and feel nothing. We squeezed into the waiting car and while Lee drove us back to the Baima Headquarters.

####

"Alright, boys. What happened in there?"

Hyen's detective friend had gotten us a conference room at the Baima Headquarters and the three of us were in there now, drinking tea, smoking cigarettes and discussing what had just happened.

Hyen shook his head. "He's gone off his nut. I went in, just like we planned. Asked him about why he wasn't offering his services anymore, offer some help with whatever it was as a way to repay my 'debt.' He asked my how I knew about that, and I told him the truth—I heard it from some kid on the peninsula. Then he tells me he's been in mourning, and goes off on this rant about blindness. I figure he's upset more than crazy, and offer to help again. That's when he froze me and dragged Mako in." He snorted and turned to me. "Said we were gonna ' _give you a scare_.'"

"How did he know you were there?" Lee asked me.

I shrugged. "No clue. Maybe because Daisy and I weren't his regular clientele, or maybe that spirit in his eye told him we were there?"

Hyen and Lee stared at me. I looked between them, feeling the heat rise in my face. "What?"

"What spirit?" Hyen asked.

"I only saw it for a second. It was white and kind of foggy... Maybe a cloud spirit?" I didn't think that was right, but it was my best guess.

"Seriously?" Lee said, looking skeptical.

Hyen sighed. "Detective Mako has an affinity for spirits."

I rolled my eyes. "Seeing one spirit is not an affinity."

"It's been more than one, but whatever. What's the note say?"

"Right." I got out the note from where I'd tucked it in my logbook and read it for Hyen and Lee. "It's an address for Tara... I don't know these characters. Her surname? And Kumah. I'm guessing that's her husband. Next it says, 'Tell them Poppy sent you.' Then there's directions for how to get to... 'the place where the water stills,' and... Huh."

"What?"

"I think it's a coupon for one free intestinal parasite removal."

Lee snorted and Hyen waved at me to hand over the note.

"Anaxwa. It's the surname Chikchi bought for all his kids. And this doesn't say 'intestinal parasite,' it says 'internal wyrm.' See? He's used the old, pre-reform characters. You were close though." He looked me up and down. "Do I need to take you to the hospital? You are awfully skinny."

I snatched the note back to look at it again. "Very funny," I said, though my skin was crawling. Chikchi had to be talking about my possession. How could he know that? And more importantly, could he really fix it?

"Maybe the library then," Hyen teased. "Get you a dictionary."

I ignored the snipe and looked over at Lee. "Is there anything else you need from us?"

"Couple things," Lee said, and he walked me through my part of the encounter with Chikchi so he would have enough information for his report.

Once that was finished, Lee promised to call if he needed anything else, and to keep us in the loop if he heard anything new about Chikchi or Ummaki or the Aarulq-kaik. Hyen and I promised the same, and we set out to meet with Kumah and Tara Anaxwa.

####

"So. About what happened after Chikchi gave us the boot." Hyen asked as we drove through Baima's sprawling residential district. "I've never seen you lose control of your bending before."

I gripped the steering wheel. "It happens sometimes. Sorry. Angry at Chikchi, I guess."

Hyen nodded. "We'll get him eventually."

I muttered some kind of agreement and we drove in silence for a minute. It wasn't really Chikchi I was mad at—that part I'd gotten over, as much as I disliked being manhandled with ice—it was Hyen, for concocting such a dangerous plan.

"Next time, I'm going with you," I said as we came to a stop at yet another tree-lined intersection.

"Huh?"

"It's too dangerous."

Hyen snorted and rolled his eyes. "It's a dangerous job, Mako. I can't afford to be afraid of leads like Chikchi just because they're benders. Heck. His daughter's one too, and I'd still be going to see her if you weren't here. I gotta trust that benders are reasonable people and that they're smart enough to know that attacking a cop, even a fat, crippled, non-bender cop, is a bad idea."

"Mm." I didn't like Hyen's description of himself, but his reasoning made sense, I supposed. He had his badge, which carried a certain amount of weight and implications with it.

"Here, pull over," Hyen said, interrupting my thoughts. "This is the house."

Kumah and Tara lived in a nice house on a hill overlooking the bay. It was a standalone, with a ring of grass, shrubs and fences separating it from the neighbors, each of whom had a similar setup. And in front of each house, a car or the space for one. I supposed you would have to have one to live out here—there was nothing but houses for miles.

I parked the cruiser and walked up to the front door, slow enough for Hyen to keep up. I rang the buzzer and took a moment to read the sign posted on Mrs. Anaxwa's porch. Apparently she was a licensed healer.

I rang again and a voice sounded inside. We waited and a minute later a scarred, one-armed Water Tribe man answered the door.

"Tara's out with a client, but if you'd like to make an appointment-"

Hyen cut him off, holding out his badge. "Mr. Anaxwa? I'm Detective Hyen and this is Detective Mako. Can we come in? Poppy sent us."

All the color drained out of the man's face, shoulders pulled forward, eyebrows up in fear. He bowed, slightly. "It's Kumah. Just Kumah." He stepped away from the door, making space for Hyen and I to enter. It was a nice house, with a number of masks and charms pinned to the walls.

"Do you..." Kumah stammered. "I mean, you're here for Ummaki, aren't you? Here. Please sit down." He led us into the dining room, walking with a pronounced limp. "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you," I said. I could have used something to wash out the taste of mystery meat and dirty ice, but it was getting late in the day, and Kumah struck me as distractable. We needed to keep him focused.

"What can you tell us about Ummaki?" Hyen asked, his raspy voice as smooth and calming as he could make it. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Uh, well..." Kumah lowered himself into one of the dining room chairs and began telling us his story. Apparently Ummaki trained with her grandfather every day, learning waterbending and healing and history. Or at least she had until the most recent full moon, nearly a week and a half ago. Kumah had no clue what had happened to her, just that she hadn't come home one evening, and when he called Chikchi, the old man had told him she was dead, then hung up the phone.

Kumah started crying at that point, and I took it upon myself to get up and find him something to blow his nose on.

"When we talked with him, Chikchi seemed to think she had been taken by a spirit," I said as Kumah worked to get control over himself again.

"She wouldn't be the first one either," Hyen added.

"Do you know if she or anyone close to her might have done something to anger the spirits?" I continued. "Or if she had any spiritual affinity?"

Kumah took a shaky breath and nodded, looking at me sidelong, like he couldn't quite bear making eye contact. "No, no. We always take care to honor the spirits." He nodded at the charms on the walls. "But, uh... Ummaki... You would call her an old soul. I don't know if that's an affinity, but..."

"What do you mean, 'an old soul?'" The phrase sounded familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint where I'd heard it.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I just assumed you were, you know..." He waved at me. "Fire Nation."

I gave him a stern look. "United Republic."

"Of course. Heh. I guess we all are, aren't we?"

I said nothing, waiting for him to explain the term.

"Right. It means she remembers her past lives. Pieces of them." He sniffed, then devolved into tears again while Hyen and I looked on, uncomfortable.

As we waited for him to calm down, I was struck by a memory. Weeks and weeks ago now, in the home of a stiff and formal Fire Nation man. Kazuo. He had called his son an old soul as well.

Tara Anaxwa returned home not too long after that, and corroborated her husband's story. But for the most part it was just like Chikchi had predicted. The girl's parents didn't know anything more than her grandfather did. Neither of them seemed very hopeful that their daughter was still alive, and given what I knew about the other Snatcher victims, I was inclined to agree by this point.

We of course thanked them both profusely, and Hyen gave Kumah one of his business cards, just in case either of them remembered anything else and so they could send us a photo of Ummaki once they had copies made.

"What do you think?" Hyen asked as we got back in the cruiser. "Do you want to look at this spot on the river now, or save it for tomorrow?"

I checked my watch. It would take about a half hour to get out there, then some indeterminate amount of time searching for clues, and then another hour to get back to the city...

"Mind if we save it for tomorrow? We can bring a whole search team, get a dog from Special Forces..."

Hyen grunted in agreement and I started up the engine.

"What do you know about past lives?" I asked as we made our way back to the Baima ferry landing. "It's not very common for people to remember them, right?"

"I honestly don't know. I've never met anyone who could. Or if they could, they never mentioned it. Still. One out of, what, thirteen now? That's gotta be more than usual."

"Two out of thirteen," I corrected. "Shiro was one too. I didn't realize it meant anything special when Kazuo mentioned it."

Hyen sighed. "Well, now we know. Regardless, we better call an expert unless you know anything."

"I'll ask Tenzin," I said and Hyen gave me an approving nod.

We stopped in the lot for the ferry and Hyen waited in the car, resting his leg, while I bought us some paper cones full of sugary fried dough from a woman with a cart.

"What do you think happened to Kumah?" I asked. "Work accident?"

Hyen grimaced and accepted his donut holes. "I think Chikchi happened."

"Oh." I pictured the old man in my head and decided it wasn't too hard to imagine him doing _that_ to Kumah. I shuddered. "You said Chikchi didn't used to be so crazy. Cutting people up is pretty crazy."

Hyen tossed a donut hole out the car window at the winged rats foraging in the parking lot. "Different kind of crazy. He's always been sadistic, but never without some kind of justification. Punishments, revenge... Not like how he assaulted us out of the blue. Used to talk more coherent too."

"But the nicknames aren't new."

Hyen snorted. "No. I think that's him wanting to come off as inscrutable and insightful while still showing off the amount of trivia he knows."

"Uh-huh. So, Frogman?"

Hyen gave me a dead-eyed look. "You call me that and you're gonna wake one morning up short a few organs."

I shut my mouth after that, though I did want to ask if he was joking about the missing organs bit. It had been a long, stressful day and we were both on edge. Hopefully my evening would go more smoothly.


	22. Chapter 22

22

I stood in my living room, keys in hand, watching the clock and debating with myself. I was well aware of the cliché of people being late for dates because they couldn't decide what to wear, but that wasn't my problem. As long as my clothes were clean and fit well, it didn't really matter to me whether I wore the gray shirt or the green one.

No, my problem was how to get there. If I took the train, there was little to no risk of getting there late, I wouldn't need to look for parking, and wouldn't need to break the news to Insook that my primary mode of transportation was a death machine. _But,_ if I rode the death machine, I would get there faster (maybe) than the train, have more freedom of movement, _and_ there was always the chance Insook was a fan of motorcycles and I could take her for a ride.

I chose the bike.

It was a bright, warm late summer evening, with a gentle breeze blowing in off the bay and old folks sitting outside their buildings, watching the world go by. I weaved between potholes and vines and waded through the endless construction sites on my way to the waterfront.

I parked up on a tiny side street near the pedestrian boardwalk and found a spot out in the open where Insook could find me, leaning against a railing overlooking the beach. A little black and white bird hunted for bugs in the sand, while a group of raggedy kids horsed around on the stairs leading down to the beach. I kept half an eye on them, just in case, wondering if it was dull moments like this that had gotten Hyen started smoking. It would have been nice to have something to keep myself occupied while I waited.

After maybe ten minutes of boredom, an improbable shadow descended upon me with a grumble like an old man shouting into a fan. A bison landed on the boardwalk and Insook slid down the creature's tail, waving goodbye as her ride took off again. She had on a simple blue dress with pants on underneath and her hair done up in braids pinned away from her face. Pretty and practical.

I bowed to her, wondering if that was the best thing to do. Handshakes were too Republic City, hugs were too intimate, and just saying hello didn't seem like enough.

Insook giggled and bowed back. "Master Mako."

"Lady Insook. How was your flight?"

"It was nice." She fell into step beside me and we wandered slowly down the boardwalk, admiring the view and the stuff for sale in the street vendors' stands. "It's going to make going home hard though. Getting around is so easy when you can just fly anywhere!"

"Yeah, and I guess cars aren't really that great when it's icy all the time."

"Not _all_ the time. But Qaniq is an old city. A lot of the streets are too narrow for cars."

"Huh," I said, realizing I really didn't know much about this person I was going to be spending the evening with. "Is that where you're from originally, or did you move there for the university?"

She nodded. "For the university. Going from some little fishing village to the big city? I _thought_ I was ready. I knew there was going to be big buildings and new people and I wouldn't know my way around, but then, like, I'd never seen a bus before!" She waved at a passing bus for emphasis.

"And so of course I do the exact same thing with Republic City. I was all like, _I've lived in Qaniq for six years, I'm an independent woman who knows her way around a city,_ " she said, putting on a silly voice that was obviously intended to represent her past self. She snorted and waved dismissively at the air.

"What surprised you?"

"It's huge! And dirty and noisy and, and, I saw an earthbender fixing potholes on my first day here."

I shrugged. "It's decent money if you can do it."

"That's just it. It's so extraordinary and yet so mundane. It's like the Republic took all the best parts of the rest of the world and just smashed them all together into one glorious, chaotic explosion."

"There were some literal explosions too." I glanced at the most recent and visible example—the portal piercing the distant sky.

"Which would explain the potholes and the dirt. I totally understand. Were... Were you here when it happened?" She nodded at the portal, barely visible in the distance.

"Yeah." Unconsciously, I flexed my lightning scarred hand. Insook caught the motion, moved closer to me and wrapped her slender fingers around my gloved ones.

"I'm sorry."

I coughed into my free hand, uncomfortable, but I didn't let go. We walked in silence for a few steps while I got my heart rate under control and Insook took in the scenery.

"So, what's the plan, Mister Tour Guide?" Insook asked after a beat.

"Well, there's the Ferris wheel at the end of the boardwalk, and then this restaurant my brother recommended where they serve everything on toothpicks, and then..." Really, Bolin had planned the entire evening, all of it designed for _'maximum romance.'_ Romance was, in my opinion, too difficult and abstract a goal, and I would count tonight a success if there was minimal boredom and no major injuries.

####

As the end of the evening approached, I decided that romance very similar to just being nice. Specifically, it was being nice to a nice girl in places that were also nice. But I still wasn't sure if it was necessary. We'd gone to all the places and done all the things Bolin had suggested, but the places and things weren't really the centerpiece. They were the backdrop for the conversation.

We talked about everything. Insook's observations of the city, my motivations for joining the force, her dreams as an academic. Our families. Movers. The awkwardness of everyday interactions. No matter the topic, she had something to say.

But now we'd finished the itinerary and I wasn't sure quite what to do. It wasn't too late in the evening yet and I didn't think Insook was ready to return to the island.

I frowned, trying to think what else we could do. "There's a bar I know near here that's pretty quiet," I said. "It's too far to walk though."

"You don't know anything closer?"

There had to be bars that were closer, but I knew that particular one was a good place, and didn't want to risk getting stuck in some noisy bar full of rowdy people.

"We can take my bike." I glanced at her. "If that's okay with you."

Insook raised an eyebrow. "Like a bicycle, or a motorcycle?"

"Motorcycle. I have an extra helmet."

She looked me up and down, scrutinizing. I made a guess as to what she was wondering.

"I've never had an accident or gotten a ticket." I may have done some pretty reckless things after I'd first learned to drive, but I'd learned my lesson since then.

She narrowed her eyes. "Only if it's not too far."

I promised it wasn't and led the way to the little side street where I'd parked. As we got close, I spotted a raggedy kid leaning against the corner of a building, looking awfully suspicious. Without breaking into a run, I picked up the pace. The kid glanced at me and Insook, then up the street and whistled, putting his fingers in his mouth.

Then I did start running. I rounded the corner just in time to spot two more kids working furiously to dismantle the engine casing on my bike.

"Hey!" I used my momentum to swing a fist at the kids and throw up a big cloud of flame, bright and scary more than hot.

The kids yelped and ran up the side street, knocking over my bike in the process. I gave chase. With one hand I reached for my badge and with the other I launched a fireball over the kids' heads that splashed down in front of them, forcing them to turn back towards me.

The two kids split up and I managed to grab the older one by the collar of her jacket as she tried to get past me, but she shucked out of it before I could get a real grip on her.

And just like that they vanished into the crowd on the boardwalk. I took a halfhearted step after them, but stopped short, catching sight of my date.

Insook stood on the corner, staring at me, eyes wide with fear, hands covering her nose and mouth.

"Are you okay?" I dropped the kid's jacket and approached her, only to have her back away.

"You... You set those kids on fire," she said, her voice quiet but gaining volume. "You're a firebender!"

"What? I'm not- I mean I _am_ , but I didn't—" I reached out to her, confused and concerned. Insook flinched and I withdrew my hand. "Insook?"

"I have to go!"

I watched in dismay as she turned and ran into the crowd. Part of me wanted to run after her, chase her down to the dock where the water taxis waited and figure out what just happened, but she didn't want to be near me. Chasing her would only make her more upset.

I stood there for a long while, debating with myself over whether I should follow or stay and try to work out what went wrong. I hadn't actually hurt the would-be thieves, had I? I hadn't hurt Insook either—she had been well out of my line of fire.

Then my arm twinged and I snapped back into the present moment. I hissed and swore, cursing at my own stupidity. Once I'd used up most of my vocabulary, I picked up my bike and the detached engine casing, threw on my helmet and rode home, faster than was really safe.

####

Back at my apartment I lay on the sofa for a while, eyes covered in the crook of my elbow, and ruminated about what I'd done wrong. After all our talking, I'd thought I'd understood Insook, but apparently not. Apparently I didn't understand people at all, just like Opal claimed. Korra and Asami and now Insook were all proof of that. Heck, even Hyen confused the chi out of me more often than not. Like that threat he'd made to sell my organs on the black market. I knew he wouldn't really do such a thing, but he'd sounded so angry and it was so much darker than his regular jokes, I didn't know what to think.

I groaned. Why did people have to be so difficult? It made friendships confusing, romance impossible, and talking with people such a chore... And that last one was essentially my entire job! Maybe I would be better off back on the Beat. No, that really wasn't any better. The power plant? That I could do. Simple, empty, repetitive actions, no interactions with other humans necessary. Except...

I cringed and sat up. My arm. With slow and steady dread, I pulled off my gloves, shirt and bandages and inspected the lines I'd inked onto my skin that morning.

Five patches. Five spots where the ink had been swallowed up by rust colored scales, each of them creeping further up towards my shoulder and neck.

I stood in front of the mirror for a long while, nauseous and lightheaded, before I picked up the pen and ink again and re-did the marks. Was this going to be my life now? Watching metal spread over my body like kudzu on a wall?

This at least was a problem I could deal with. I had a camera collecting dust somewhere in the closet. I dug it out, wrote the date and time on a piece of paper and took a picture of myself in the mirror. Done.

I realized immediately after that using that day's newspaper would have been better, since I could write whatever I wanted on a piece of paper, but the newspaper had to stay true to fact. I would do that tomorrow. After a week or so of pictures like this, I would be able to go down to the photo lab at Headquarters and develop the film myself—provided I could figure out how—or just hand off the undeveloped film to Bei Fong and have her deal with it. _And_ , if I ever found I couldn't handle it anymore and had to take the pliers to myself, the photos would still count as evidence.

The thought made me feel better, even though I hadn't actually done anything. I put my shirt back on and shuddered, wondering what it would take for me to turn to Chikchi.

####

I dragged myself to work the next day, relishing the fact that tomorrow I had the day off. I had things to do of course, but work at least wasn't one of them.

I sat down at my desk and got started on the paperwork that would cover my ass for yesterday's little misadventure, and the one to requisition a dog and support for today's project. I understood the necessity, but it was a real pain sometimes. I was sure Korra never had to deal with bureaucracy like this.

"Hey, Mako!" Umida leaned on the divider separating my desk from the rest, threatening to drip tea on my papers. "Did you catch the game last night?"

"No." I moved my papers and quietly let him waste my time for the sake of the office environment while he discussed the national takraw championships. At least until Hyen showed up and dragged me away to prepare for our day's outing.

The ride back out to Baima was uneventful, though Hyen did get slobbered on by Kung's molehound. I spent some time wondering if she knew about the possessed and if she knew that I knew, but fortunately the topic of the Quarantine never came up beyond asking about Hyen's leg.

We stopped briefly to pick up Hyen's friend Lee at the Baima office and then struck out for the countryside. It took us a while to find "the place where the water stills" thanks to Chikchi's vague instructions and Lee's poor sense of direction, but we did eventually get there. A flat, muddy beach surrounded a marshy extension of the river, full of fish and frogs and wading birds. I was impressed when Kung let her dog out of the jeep and it utterly ignored the local wildlife.

After that, it was pure protocol. We set up fencing to keep away any looky-loos, even though there was no one around, and systematically searched every inch between the beach to the road and beyond. Lee radioed back to his boss for some extra help, and maybe an hour later, two waterbenders had bent most of the river away so Kung and I could poke at the uncovered mud. We found a lot of trash among the plants, but no signs of Ummaki's body, or conclusive evidence that she and her grandfather had ever been there.

I left before the search was finished to help with another firebender intake evaluation back at Headquarters. I would have rather stayed at the search site, but it wasn't the kind of thing I could back out of at the last minute. I got a lift to the ferry from Lee, and from there it was an easy train ride back to the station. The whole trip though, I couldn't help but wonder if Chikchi's prediction would come true—that we were going to learn as little on the bank of the river as we had talking with Ummaki's parents.

####

To my surprise, Bolin met me just outside the office after work.

"Mako! Bro!" He draped an arm over my shoulders, knocking me off balance as we walked from the main entrance to my parking spot. "Sooo, how'd the date go?"

I shook him off and folded my arms across my chest. "Bad."

"What really? Did you follow my plan?"

"Yes, really. And yes, we followed your plan."

"Then what happened? On the island you two seemed so perfect."

I just grunted. "You want a ride home?" It had only taken a couple minutes to fix what the kids from last night had done to my bike.

"No way." He wrapped an arm around me again. "If I let you go home, you're just gonna grump around your apartment and only come out for work for another four years. You need a boys' night out."

I buried my face in my hand. "Bo, I don't- Hey!"

While he'd been talking, Bolin had managed to sneak one hand into my pocket and relieve me of my keys. With deft fingers he clipped my keys onto his own key ring and floated the whole jangling mess over both our heads by bending the little stones wired into his keychain.

"Where'd you park?"

"No way." I jumped for the keys. "You are not driving my bike."

"And neither are you." Still holding my keys out of reach, he linked arms with me and marched us both down the street.

There was a pub not too far away, and Bolin dragged me inside. I didn't put up too much resistance—I was hungry and it had been a few days since I'd spent time with my brother—but I did refuse to drink anything besides water.

Bolin went up to the counter to get us some food and I slumped in a booth at the back, glancing through my logbook to keep myself occupied.

"Okay, bro," Bolin said as he returned with two baskets of deep-fried mushrooms and squid. "Tell the love meister what happened."

I put away my book and rolled my eyes. "I don't know."

"Nuh-uh. Unless you got swallowed by a spirit or hit on the head, amnesia is not a valid excuse."

"I'm not saying I don't remember, I'm saying I don't wanna talk about it."

Bolin opened his mouth to rebut, but was interrupted by a shout from another part of the pub.

"Mako!"

Hyen and Vani were squeezing their way past the tables, Hyen with his crutch, Vani carrying drinks. I hadn't seen them on my way in, but it wasn't that surprising they were here. We weren't that far from Headquarters and Hyen at least had the day off tomorrow. I waved for them to come join us and silently thanked the spirits for the opportunity to avoid talking about my botched date.

"Mind if we sit?" Hyen asked as he slid into the booth next to Bolin. I made room for Vani, hoping it was just the two of them and not the whole office.

"So, what are we talking about?" Hyen asked in a sing-song voice once introductions had been made.

"Mako's date," Bolin answered in the same tone.

I groaned and slumped against the back of the booth.

" _You_ had a date?" Vani asked.

"I know, right?" Bolin said.

"Only because _you_ forced me into it," I spat with a little more venom than I had meant. Bolin leaned away from me as though physically pushed, hurt on his face.

I sighed. "Sorry."

To my surprise, it was Hyen who responded. "Let's talk about something else." He took a swig of his drink and glanced at Vani. "Wanna tell them what Bei Fong told you?"

Vani cleared her throat, looking a little abashed at her misplaced attempt at humor. "Oh, sure. Mako, did you ever meet that kid Liu?"

"The one who went to the university?" I asked. Liu was one of the office staffers—a secretary who worked in the filing department.

Vani nodded. "Turns out he's got some street smarts too, on top of being able to find fingerprint matches without wanting to gouge his eyes out."

Reluctantly, I cracked a smile. The conversation stayed in safe waters and I felt myself relax as Vani filled me in on the departmental politics. When she got up to get us another round, I broke my promise from earlier and had her get me one of whatever my partner was having.

It turned out Hyen took his post-work drinking seriously and whatever it was burned the back of my throat and kept on smoldering in my stomach. Already warm from the crowded booth, I undid my top button on my shirt and rolled up my sleeves, which elicited a gasp from everyone else at the table.

Momentarily panicked, I thought for a second the scales were showing, but a quick check proved they weren't. It was just the bandage that had them worried.

"What happened?" Vani asked.

I grimaced, mind racing for a plausible excuse for my "injury" when I should have been long healed from my adventures in the spirit world. "Ran into some kids trying to steal my bike."

"And they attacked you?" Vani said, green eyes going wide.

I rubbed the back of my head. "Yeah."

Bolin's mouth opened in a little 'o' of sudden understanding, meeting my eyes to make sure I knew what he was thinking. I couldn't be sure of course, but I guessed it was my possession.

"This was just last night, wasn't it?" he asked. "Did Insook see..." He gave my bandaged arm a meaningful look.

I shook my head. "She saw me _bending_ , which I guess was so terrifying she just couldn't handle it."

"That's nuts," Bolin said, sounding relieved, but Hyen and Vani were both giving me weird looks.

"It's not like anyone got hurt besides me," I said, trying to placate them. "I just gave them a scare."

"Insook—your date—did _she_ know that?" Hyen asked.

I folded my arms across my chest. "She should have. Nothing burned down or exploded, there was no blood, no nothing, and the kids got away fine."

Hyen and Vani shared a look.

"What?"

"Firebending can be pretty scary," Vani said.

"Not _that_ scary," I said. I laid my left arm on the table and conjured a tiny flame between my gloved thumb and pointer finger to show them just how pleasant and not scary firebending was.

"Mako, don't," Bolin hissed and I let the flame flicker out. Booze-soaked wooden booth was not the best place for this.

"Sure, if you're expecting it," Hyen said. "But did you actually _tell_ her you're a firebender?"

"No, but it's kind of obvious, right?" I said, pulling my lower eyelid for emphasis. "And she's been staying with Jinora and the airbenders. I figure one of them must have mentioned it at some point."

"Then that's your fault," Hyen said. "Eye color doesn't mean anything by itself and you shouldn't have assumed she would want to mine your friends for information before getting to know you herself."

"My fault!"

Hyen held up a finger. "Yeah, your fault." He glanced at Vani for support, who nodded. "Look. Where's she from?"

"Small fishing town, but she lives in Qaniq now."

Understanding spread across his face. "So she'd probably never met _any_ kind of bender before the airbenders, who are complete pacifists. And then—"

Bolin interrupted him. "Wait. How could she have never met _any_ benders before now?"

Hyen and Vani both raised an eyebrow at him.

"Benders born in small towns don't usually stay there," Hyen said. "They leave to find a teacher or just travel since it's generally pretty safe for them."

"And they don't go to university either," Vani added. "Why study for years and years when you can get a job thanks to natural talent alone?"

"Huh," Bolin said, looking thoughtful.

"Anyway," Hyen continued, "your girl probably never met any benders before Master Tenzin. Then she agreed to go out with you, which is scary enough in and of itself."

I spluttered, offended at being called scary for what had to be the tenth time that evening.

Hyen shushed me and went on with his narrative. "You're a big, tall guy with crazy scars and she's this tiny, sheltered university student. She goes out with you, despite the risk, only to find out you can set things on fire with your mind and that you're not afraid to do so over minor offenses."

"I'm not psychic!" I protested.

"Doesn't matter. Most non-benders only have a vague idea of how bending works. My point is she was probably already on edge and then you scared the chi out of her."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "So, what should I do?"

"Apologize," three voices said as one.

"Right, but how?"

We spent some time discussing the best way to craft an apology and how to deliver the message. In person seemed to be the consensus, which was convenient, since I would be on the island tomorrow anyway. Eventually Vani got up to use the restroom, which reminded Bolin he had to go as well, leaving me and Hyen by ourselves.

"So, O Great Social Guru," I said, finishing off the last of the burning drink, "how come you're so good with this advice stuff?"

"I get a kick out of telling people what to do. It's kind of why I became a cop."

I snorted. "I mean relationship advice. It's not like you're married like Vani," I said without thinking, then winced. Could he even _get_ married? The laws were pretty straightforward, but Hyen... wasn't. "I mean..."

Hyen waved my concern away. "I've _had_ relationships. Just because I'm single now doesn't disqualify me from telling you what to do."

"Mm." That answer of course raised more questions, but they were all extraordinarily personal—the kinds of things _I_ wouldn't want people asking me—so I kept my mouth shut.

"But seriously," Hyen continued, "if she doesn't accept your apology, then she's probably not worth your time. You're a good guy. You deserve a gal who sees that."

Vani and my brother returned a few minutes later and we sat around for a while more before going our separate ways.

* * *

 _A/N: Fun Fact. Takraw, or_ Sepak Takraw, _is the volleyball-soccer hybrid Zuko and friends play on the beach in the first series. It's a pretty badass sport._


	23. Chapter 23

23

I took a water taxi out to the island by myself that morning. One of the acolytes met me at the dock and I walked with her up to the little patio where Jinora was waiting.

"Hello, Mako," Jinora said without getting up or even bothering to turn her head. "I thought we would continue with the same technique as last time. Are you ready?"

"Mm." I grunted an affirmative and sat down beside her. There was something off in her voice. Maybe she was just tired, but I didn't think that was right. Tense maybe. Or... brittle? I didn't comment though. She was likely just working herself too hard—harder than a young kid should.

"Breathe," Jinora intoned and I did so, closing my eyes and getting out the borrowed necklace I'd been wearing, but scarcely used.

 _Then again, I worked_ my _ass off when I was fifteen, so who am I to say she should take it easy? Though on the other hand, she has the option to take it easy, while I had to work hard to prevent Zolt from melting my face off, so why should she have to push herself?_

"-and let it drown out all other thoughts," Jinora said.

I tried. I focused on my breathing, on the feel of the beads through my gloves, determined to have a good attitude and get something out of the session, even if nothing magical happened. I was stressed about the other things I had to do today, and this would help with that.

I slipped into the meditation, and eventually I forgot to count the beads and forgot to think. I was floating, weightless, all my attention turned inward to my breath, my pulse, my chi following the lines of my body, and... something else. Like some faint smell I couldn't identify that made me nostalgic for something I couldn't remember.

Thought returned. _This is weird_. I realized I was confused, that I was floating in darkness. I couldn't see or hear anything, couldn't even feel the ground beneath me. Everything was dark and cloying and I couldn't move.

"Relax!" Jinora shouted and the spell was broken. Somehow I was on my feet, black spots filling my vision as the blood drained out of my head. I blinked, waiting for my heart to stop pounding in my ears, and the stuck, floating feeling was gone.

Jinora sighed. "You almost had it. Just a little more effort and you could have crossed over, I'm sure."

"Mm." I rubbed my neck, wondering if spirit magic was always that awful. If it was, it would certainly explain why more people didn't do it. "I'm done for today." I took a moment to collect myself and glanced up at the temple. "Is Insook around?"

"I think she's in her room."

"Right." I thanked Jinora for the session and walked towards the womens' dorms in a daze. _Something_ had happened, so I had to be getting closer, right? It didn't feel like a success though.

####

It was little awkward being in the womens' dorms. Like I was being rude just by being there. There was no rule against men being in the building, but it was an invasion of privacy in a way. Maybe it would be better if I waited for Insook in the main part of the temple?

I rubbed my face. I was making excuses for myself.

After a little investigation, I found Insook's room down on the ground floor, near the garden and patio where Jinora and I meditated.

"Hello?" I knocked on the door.

Insook opened the door, her hair and clothes in disarray. "Oh! Mako." She was immediately on the defensive, adjusting the collar of her dress, leaning on the door frame to turn it into a barrier between us.

"Hey." I took a breath and said the words Hyen had helped me choose. "I wanted to apologize. Sorry about the other night. I didn't mean to scare you." That was it. No lengthy explanation, no questioning her reaction, just an apology.

Insook's response was subtle. She didn't move, didn't say anything right away, but her expression changed. Surprised.

I waited, wondering if I should elaborate, or leave it at that and go. Go. I should go.

"Sorry," I said again, bowed and turned to leave.

Insook touched my arm. "No, I overreacted."

I frowned, faced her again. "No, you didn't. I _was_ scary. I didn't even tell you I was a firebender," I said, pressing the heel of my hand into my forehead as though I could push that thought through time to the me of a few days ago.

Insook shook her head. "No, I was being a pansy and overreacted. You were only a little scary and not on purpose. I think... I mean, I don't know you that well, I only met you just last week, but... I think you're too nice to be scary."

I couldn't help it. I laughed. Not because she'd said anything humorous, but because it was so strange having her call me nice after I'd scared her and I didn't know what to do.

"You goof," she said.

No one had ever called me a goof before either. Bolin was the goof, I was the stoic, serious one. I took a breath, shoved my hands in my pockets.

"Thanks."

We stood in the hall for a moment and I wondered what to do next. I hadn't planned this far in advance.

"Listen," Insook said. "I should get back to work. But..." She held up a finger for me to wait and went into her room, returning a moment later with a piece of paper. "My schedule. I imagine you've got crazy hours, being a cop and all, but if you ever want to stop by, you can."

"Thanks," I said again, and left her to her work.

####

My next stop on the island had to do with something more serious and worrying than both training with Jinora and speaking with Insook combined.

I found Pema in the kitchen, reading a dog-eared romance novel and keeping half an eye on Ikki and Meelo while they cooked up some kind of horrible floury disaster. I knocked on the door frame and stuck my head in, hoping I would be able pull Pema away without things dissolving into chaos.

"What are you making?"

Meelo waved a spoon at me, as threatening and stern as a small child with powdered sugar on his nose could be. "Not one step further, mister! We're making khapseys for Daddy's birthday."

I nodded. "That's nice of you." I glanced at Pema. "Can we talk?"

Pema eyed her two cooks for a minute as they diligently feigned good behavior, cutting dough into little flower shapes to be fried.

"Ikki, you're in charge."

"Yes, chef!" Ikki saluted and Pema followed me out.

"How's your research going?" I asked.

"It's going fine," Pema said with a smile. She didn't elaborate though.

I nodded and let her take the lead to find us a more private place to talk. A quiet little study two floors up from the kitchen. Pema closed the door behind us and retrieved a stack of papers from a locked cabinet.

"Everything we've found so far." She handed me the stack of papers. "We can't be certain about any of them, but I think Opal and I have done everything we can. If you really want to do this, I think it's time to tell them the truth."

I nodded and glanced at the first few pages, too nervous to focus and read the words. I swallowed, set the papers on top of the cabinet and gave Pema my best formal bow, heart pounding.

"Thank you, Pema. And tell Opal thanks too. When do you want to go? Today?" She had sounded urgent before, and I had nothing else to do that day.

Pema pursed her lips. "I can't." There was a finality to her tone that implied _can't_ meant _can't ever_ and not just _can't today_.

"Why not?"

"I know we're doing the right thing, but I can't have my family involved in a scandal like this. Not after all we've been through. You've still got Opal and Lin to help you, and Bolin."

"I understand. Is Opal here now?"

"I don't think so, but you can always ask Jinora," she said with a half smile.

Pema found a box for me to carry the papers in, locked the study on our way out, and returned to make sure the kitchen hadn't flooded or caught fire while I found Jinora again at the meditation patio.

"Hello, Mako," she said as I approached, not bothering to turn around. "Did my mother give you the papers?"

"She did. Do you know where Opal is?"

Seconds ticked by while I waited for Jinora to answer, long enough that I started to wonder if she'd even heard me.

"She's with Bolin at his place."

I thanked her and started heading for the bison pens to look for a ride, before remembering something I'd meant to ask earlier in the day—a thought that had occurred to me while meditating. I turned back.

"What about Naga? Can you find her?"

Jinora twisted around in her seat, raising an eyebrow at me. "I think I can. But last I heard she's with Korra's parents. Why?"

"Well, isn't the Avatar supposed to have a connection with animals? And Naga is _her_ dog, so there's got to be some kind of connection between them. And even if there's not, maybe Naga could still track her if we took her through the portal."

While I spoke, Jinora got to her feet, smiling. "Mako, you're so smart!" She took half a step towards me, then hesitated and bowed. "I'll send Senna and Tonraq a telegraph right away."

I thanked her, trying to calculate the time it would take to ship a polar bear-dog halfway across the world.

####

I knocked on Bolin's door, hoping he and Opal hadn't gone anywhere since Jinora checked on them. Bolin answered with a grin and dragged me inside before I had time to say hello.

"So... what happened? How'd it go?" he asked in a sing-song voice, leaning heavily on my shoulder.

I looked past him towards Opal, who was sitting on the sofa, Pabu in her lap. "I spoke with Pema. She thinks we should talk to them." I held out the box of papers, forcing Bolin to get off me in the process.

"Oh," Opal said as Bolin asked, "Who?"

"The families. Pema's backing out, so it's up to us."

"Mm." Opal nodded and Bolin squared his shoulders, fists held stiffly at his sides.

"When do we start?" he asked, earnest and ready.

I looked at him, surprised, then glanced at Opal.

It wasn't that I wouldn't have liked having him along, or thought that he would be bad at delivering uncomfortable news to strangers, it was just that three was too many. There was a reason cops—Beat cops or detectives or whoever—always went solo or in pairs into "friendly" situations. It was because anything more than two people, especially two armed and uniformed people, was intimidating. If you wanted to beat the snot out of somebody or drag them to jail, then sure. Send as many guys as possible. But if you wanted to have someone cooperate and actually listen, no way.

Heck, even _two_ people could be too many at times, but in those cases it wasn't hard for one partner (usually me) to "have a smoke" or "move the car" and get out of the way.

It wasn't like we could just split up either, with me by myself and Opal and Bolin together. For this to work, I had to be there. I was the proof.

"What's wrong?" Opal nudged Pabu off her lap and stood up, brushing ferret fur off her skirt.

I smoothed back my hair, wishing Hyen could have given me a script for this conversation as well. "Bo... Maybe it'd be better if you sit this one out. It's just, three's a lot of people. I _have_ to be there, and Opal knows where were going, and..." I tried to explain my reasoning, dredging up some half-remembered examples from training.

Bolin put a hand on my shoulder. "Mako, I get it. You and Opal go. I'll tell Lin what you're doing, and then everyone will be on the same page." He shook my by the shoulder in an encouraging kind of way, then began searching the apartment for his keys.

"Are you ready for this?" Opal asked in a quiet voice, half hidden under the noise of Bolin's search.

I rolled my shoulder and flexed my damaged hand, feeling the rough scales catch on the bandage material and trying to ignore the half-numb, half-queasy feeling of _this doesn't belong to me_.

"Yeah. Let's talk with them."


	24. Chapter 24

24

Opal and I took the train back to my apartment to grab my bike and pick up the notes Jinora had left me a few days ago. And get my badge, and have a drink of water, and... I realized I was dragging my feet, that some part of me didn't want to do this.

 _Screw it_ , I told myself, and marched out the door before I could think of another way to procrastinate. Opal and I strapped on our helmets, I started up the engine, and we were off.

"How was the investigation?" I asked as we stopped in traffic on our way to our first destination.

"Expensive. I had to buy a lot of things I didn't want."

"What? Why?"

"You have to have a reason to talk with people, right? If they work in a shop, buying something from the shop makes it really easy."

"And if they didn't work in a shop?" I asked.

"We came up with some other ways. The missing poodle-monkey gambit, or the lost newcomer. If we caught them coming or going from the temple, then it was easy."

"The Air Temple?"

"No, the Fire Sages' Temple, or one of the Shaman Houses. Left at the next intersection."

Traffic had started to move again, and I pulled forward. I was glad I didn't have to use subterfuge like Opal and Pema had to conduct my own investigations for work, but I couldn't help but wonder if people would be more open if they thought I was just a chatty customer and not a cop. I would have to ask Hyen if he'd ever done undercover work.

I parked on the street, got the box of papers out of the storage compartment, and followed Opal into a florist's shop.

"Morning, miss. Sir." The clerk, a middle-aged woman in a green apron nodded to us. "How can I help you?"

"Is Jun around?" Opal asked, looking shy and kind of embarrassed.

The woman narrowed her eyes like she was suspicious, but there was a hint of a smile there too. "Let me check the back."

Once the clerk had disappeared into the back room, I leaned in close to Opal. "Does Jun think you're interested in him?"

Opal's mouth twisted. "It was Pema's idea."

"This is going to be awkward."

"Sometimes there's no avoiding awkward," Opal said, tossing her head to get her hair out of her face.

I didn't respond, and instead admired the flowers until the clerk came back, a skinny, dark-eyed youth in tow.

"Oh! Hi, Opal." The youth stepped up to her, smiling and rocking on his toes. "Do you need another delivery?"

Opal shook her head. "Can we talk? Privately?"

The rocking and the smiling stopped. "Oh. Uh." He glanced at the clerk. "Hey, boss. Can we use the back?"

The aproned woman gave him permission, and Jun started for the door, only to stop short when Opal and I both followed. He looked at me, confused.

"He's with me," Opal said gently.

Jun continued to look confused.

I glanced at Opal, who bit her lip and tilted her head at Jun. I took this to mean I should explain myself and cleared my throat. "It's about your father."

"My father?" He still looked lost, and there was worry in his voice. "What about him? My mom already... the will..."

"It would be better to discuss this in private," I said, keeping my voice low.

Jun frowned at me, then Opal. "Who _are_ you?"

I sighed and got out my badge. "Detective Mako, Missing Persons." I'd hoped to get further along in the conversation before having to play the cop card, since now this was going to be a Big Deal and Jun's boss might very well gossip about it and potentially put all of us in an awkward situation.

But I'd known that going in and it was far from enough to keep me from doing what I thought was right.

Jun stared at me like I was an alien from another planet.

"Can we speak in private?" I prompted.

"Oh, uh..."

"The back room," Opal said gently, and Jun led us back there.

I closed the door with a click and took a seat at the little round lunch table across from Jun.

"Are you a cop too?" Jun asked Opal.

"No," Opal said, sounding proud of the fact.

"But she does have a boyfriend," I added just to set things straight.

Jun looked between me and her, and I rolled my eyes. "Not _me_."

"Oh. Um..." Jun shook his head. "You're here about my dad? Do you... know what happened to him?"

"I think so." I set the box of papers on the table and pulled out the first file. "Tuan. That's your father's name, correct?"

Jun bobbed his head. "Yes, that's correct."

"And he worked as the supervisor and repairman for an apartment building on Kakogan Street?"

"He did, yeah. It's all demolitioned now, but yeah."

So far, so good. Jinora's information was accurate, and Opal had managed to find the right person. I gave her an approving look.

"You said you know what happened to him?" Jun asked. "I mean, I know he's gone, but..."

I took a breath. This was the hard part. "I think— _we_ think—he's still alive."

Jun stared at me like he'd forgotten how words worked. Then, "You're kidding me."

"I don't kid, Mr. Jun."

Jun scowled at me. "This is some kind of sick joke, isn't it? He's dead. We had the funeral, we did the will. It's done with." He squeezed his hands together on the table, knuckles going white.

Opal put a hand over his. "Jun, he's not. Mako's seen him."

"Mako's seen..." He stared at her in disbelief, then pulled his hand out from under Opal's and pointed an accusing finger at me. "How do I know you're evena real detective? Lemme see your badge."

I handed it over and Jun scratched a fingernail against the metal, as though he could peel off the engraved characters. I considered making the joke, _'I could arrest you if you need more proof,'_ but this was not the appropriate time for jokes.

Jun slid my badge back across the table. "When? When did you see him? How can you be sure?"

"Xiaoshu six," I said, returning the badge to my pocket. "And no, I'm not sure."

"Xiaoshu... What do you mean, you're not sure?" Jun pounded a shaking fist on the table.

I held up a hand for him to wait. "Let me explain."

Jun humphed, but didn't try anything.

I got out my well-used logbook, not to read from it, but just to help me remember and to give myself a prop to look at. I cleared my throat.

"Xiaoshu six. Myself, my partner and a team from Special Forces went into the Spirit Wilds Quarantine Zone to search for a spirit we believed had been abducting people. I got separated from the group, and in trying to find my way back to the entrance, I came across a group of people living in one of the abandoned buildings.

"The people there..." I smoothed back my hair, reeling in the urge to step outside for some fresh air. "I think someone—I don't know _who—_ put them there because they'd all..." I stared at the shelves full of vases behind Jun, trying to think of the best way to put it. "Run afoul of the spirits."

"Run afoul?"

Opal gave me a withering look. "They got possessed. Your dad angered a spirit and it took over his body."

"What?"

"He's there, Jun. Your dad."

He gave her a horrified look. "What? You're saying he's _not_ dead and he's living in the Quarantine? Because some, some bloodbender spirit got him? You expect me to believe that? Yeah, right!" He stood up and banged his hands on the table for emphasis. "I'm going back to work. And you... Get out of here. I don't care if you're a cop."

"No way," Opal said, getting up to put herself between him and the door, hands on hips. "We're telling the truth. Show him, Mako!"

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Mako!"

I got up and Jun shrunk back.

"He doesn't want to hear it." I fished a business card from my shirt pocket and offered it to Jun, who stared at it like it might bite him. "In case you change your mind." I'd crossed out the office telephone number and written in my home number on the back.

Finally, Jun took the card. I nodded to him and left, dragging Opal with me by the elbow. Once we were outside and out of the line of sight from the shop, Opal pulled her arm from my grasp and rounded on me, bringing us to a stop on the sidewalk.

"You're just gonna leave him?" she hissed.

"He wasn't being cooperative. The whole thing's a touchy subject, and-"

"A _touchy subject?_ I didn't go through all this trouble just to have you handing out business cards all, _hey, call us if you feel like it_. How are we supposed to help them if we don't tell them what's wrong?"

"We did tell him. Just give him some time to come around." I stepped past her. "Where's our next stop?"

Opal let out an inarticulate groan and buffeted the back of my head with a gust of air, but she stuck with me and directed us onward.

####

Our next stop was Jun's mother and Tuan's wife, Ailan. We pulled up in front of a partially damaged townhouse only a five minute ride away from the florist's. During the ride, I got Opal to agree, reluctantly, to let me take the lead on this one. It surprised me just how badly she had handled our first encounter, and made me wonder how terrible I'd been when I'd first joined the Force.

I parked just outside the gate and knocked on the door. A middle-aged woman answered, wearing a conservative green dress, clearly related to Jun, with the same big, dark eyes as her son.

"Can I help you?" she asked, glancing at me and then Opal.

"Detective Mako. Missing Persons." I showed her my badge, explained the general reason for our visit—Tuan was alive and in the Quarantine and confirmed that Opal was the girl who had spoken with her a couple weeks ago at the neighborhood shrine. She invited us in, her expression hard and blank.

"So," I said as we sipped tea in her living room, "just to be clear, none of this is on the records. I don't know who's behind this, but it isn't right. You deserve to know, and Tuan deserves to be with his family."

Ailan was frowning. "Deserve to know what? I don't know why anyone would want to lock him away, and in the Quarantine of all places. My Tuan's never done anything to get on the wrong side of the police or the triads or the government."

It was curious that she lumped the triads in with police and government, but I pressed on with my story.

"Just... bear with me. Your husband worked as a repairman for an apartment building, correct?"

Ailan nodded.

"Well, according to my sources, a frog spirit—or maybe a toad spirit—took over the alley behind the building. Tuan got in a fight with it after trying to empty the trash and it possessed him."

"It didn't kill him," Ailan said. On the surface it sounded like she believed what I was saying, but it felt like she was just humoring me, ready to kick us out at the first opportunity.

"No. He's still alive. Only..."

"A spirit has control of his body."

I shook my head. "Not anymore. It was probably only for a few seconds, but something that invasive will leave a mark."

"I don't understand."

I looked to Opal for support and she nodded. I rolled up my sleeve and started peeling off the bandages.

"Mako ran into a metal snake spirit," Opal explained. Ailan set down her tea and leaned back in her seat, clearly distressed, as my disfigurement became obvious.

"It left pieces in you," Ailan whispered.

I grimaced. "Yeah. It did. Just like Tuan's toad spirit. This is why they've got him and the rest of the possessed locked up in the Quarantine. They've got them brainwashed to think _this_ ," I held my arm out to her, "is gonna cause panic in the streets if the public finds out because everyone will think they've turned into monsters."

Ailan tore her gaze away from my arm to meet my eyes. "Will it consume you?"

I blinked. "Uh..."

"The ink," she said, indicating her own arm. "You've been marking the progression."

"What!?" Opal yelped. "Mako, you didn't tell us-"

I cut her off. "I don't know."

"Tuan and the others," Ailan said. "They're further along than this."

"They are."

"Is he-" Her voice cracked and she took half a second to put her hard, blank mask on again. "Does it hurt?"

I rubbed the stripe on my wrist where I'd hurt myself. "Not as much as you'd think."

Ailan pursed her lips. "I want you to take me to him."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "It's not safe. There's a fence and guards, and _they're_ there to keep wild spirits from getting into the city."

"I don't care. If my Tuan is in there, if he's alive, I don't care."

Opal caught my eye, folded her arms across her chest. "We can take you."

"Just, not yet," I added in an effort to show a united front. Taking the families into the Quarantine had never been part of the plan. "We've got a lot of other people to see who might want to come along. And we need a way over the fence without anyone noticing. There's a lot of things we have to figure out first."

Ailan nodded. "Can you put me in touch with the other families?"

"I can," I said, handing over one of my business cards with my personal number on it. "Once we've spoken with them." I told her briefly about our meeting with her son before promising again to keep her informed before we took our leave.

####

"Did you tell at least tell Bolin it's been getting worse?" Opal asked once we were back outside.

"No. He shouldn't have to worry about that."

"He's your brother, Mako! He's supposed to worry about you. It's pretty much his _job_ to worry about you, only you're not letting him."

"No, it's not!" I smoothed back my hair, rubbed my forehead. "Look. I've got a lot on my plate right now, but _I'm taking care of this_. I've been documenting everything and figuring out what makes it worse. But for now, we've got more important things to focus on than upsetting Bolin."

Opal put her hands on her hips and frowned at me "And what is it?"

"Huh?"

"What's making it worse?"

"That... It's a work in progress." I got out the key to my bike and resumed walking.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Opal asked, falling into step beside me.

"That I'm working on it! I have to gather more evidence." I had some theories, but I didn't even want to write them down yet, much less say them out loud.

Opal humphed but didn't say anything, angry little eddies of air tugging at our ankles.

"You're not going to tell Bolin?" I asked, just to make sure.

"That's _your_ responsibility."

I winced at the acid in her voice but let the conversation end there as we moved on to our next destination.

Opal and I spent the rest of the day contacting the families with mixed results. We got a lot of reactions similar to Jun's: angry, suspicious and confrontational, while the rest ran the gamut from overjoyed to inconsolable. A surprising number insisted, like Ailan had, that Opal and I take them to the Quarantine immediately. By the end of the day, Opal and I had gotten good at convincing them to wait.

In the end, we didn't have time to visit all of them but I promised Opal we would could continue once I was finished with work tomorrow.


	25. Chapter 25

25

I stopped by the office early and left a note for Vani and Hyen, informing them that I was at the university, following up on a lead in the Snatcher case. Hyen was probably going to chew me out for not being a "team player," but I was of the opinion that I was a much better team player than him since I was the only one who had ever played on a team professionally.

The university had been hit hard during Kuvira's attack, with more than half the buildings so badly damaged they had to be torn down before they fell down. Everything else had been hastily patched back together with earthbending, and construction workers outnumbered students two to one. It was chaotic and noisy, and a man in a truck honked at me as I walked down a dirt-paved pedestrian walkway, looking for a building called Gurshen Hall. Why they couldn't just use normal addresses with numbers and named streets was beyond me. Then again, the unnecessary complication probably weeded out some of the stupider students. If you couldn't find your classes, you probably had no place going to university.

I asked a passing student for directions, and managed with minimal difficulty to find the building and room I was looking for. Gurshen Hall, room 12-B, Introduction to Spiritual Studies by Visiting Student-Professor Insook.

I was a few minutes late, so I slipped in as quietly as I could and took a seat at the back of the amphitheater-style classroom. Insook stood at the professor's lectern down below, gesturing with a piece of chalk while she talked.

"Good! Now, those of you who have completed the reading will know that Guo Hin Lo debunked the theory less than a century later, thanks to his observations of the koi fish on his pilgrimage to the Northern Water Tribe. Two points to whoever can summarize his alternative."

A girl in the front row raised her hand and Insook pointed at her with the chalk.

"It is not that some spirits have physical forms and some do not, but rather that some chose to bring their physical forms from their world into ours and some did not."

Insook nodded and paused to write something on one of the papers scattered on her lectern. "Correct. Of course, Hin Lo's theory would not be widely accepted for another fifty years..."

I listened, entranced, as Insook, with occasional help from her students, recounted a thousand years' worth of philosophers arguing about what counted and didn't count as a spirit. It was amazing to me that all these people, dead for centuries, had spent their lives trying to answer questions I never would have thought of.

"And don't forget," Insook called as the hour ended and the students began packing up their notebooks, "If you'd rather not take the midterm exam, come to my office to participate in my experiment instead!"

That sounded ominous, but the students didn't seem to care.

I waited for the majority of the students to leave, then walked down to the lectern.

"Professor Insook." I bowed to her, eliciting a small smile. "Fascinating lecture."

"If you're being honest, you're in the minority," she said, tidying up her papers and erasing the notes she'd made on the blackboard. "Did you see how many of them fell asleep?"

I glanced back at the seats. All of the students were gone, so if they had fallen asleep, they'd at least woken up at the end of the lecture.

"How have you been?" she asked.

"Good," I said. "I had the day off yesterday."

"You should have visited then." She dusted the chalk off her hands and turned to face me. "What?"

I blinked and wiped the confusion off my face. I hadn't had the time, but even if I had, I didn't know if I would have thought to come visit. That, plus being surprised to learn that she actually _wanted_ me to visit...

"Nothing. Do you have some time now?"

"Yes, but do you?" She looked me up and down, indicating my uniform, then frowned. "You're not here to arrest me or anything, are you?"

I snorted. "No. I do have some official business to do, but since you gave me this," I showed her the schedule she had given me, "I thought I might stop by."

Insook smiled. "Cup of tea in my office?"

I accepted her offer and followed her down into the basement of the building. Judging from the exposed pipes and the signs of recent earthbending, I suspected the basement hadn't originally been intended for regular use.

Insook's office was a weirdly shaped little room that she shared with three or four other student-professors that someone had tried to make at least somewhat bearable. A couple of mover posters were glued to the walls, and someone had mangled and jury-rigged an electric clothes iron, turning it into a contraption that could boil a pot of water. It looked like a housefire waiting to happen, but I figured the people here were too smart to allow that.

"Sorry again for running out," Insook said once we were settled at her desk, each with a cup of scalding hot tea. "I didn't know what to do and I think my feet just kind of decided..."

"Don't be." We'd already talked about it and I didn't see the need to repeat everything again. I set the tea on her table and met her eyes, doing my best to look deadly serious. "But I do want to ask you, should I be worried you're doing experiments on your students?"

Worry overcame her, and then she laughed. "What? No! It's not like I'm giving them shocks or, or making them live on an abandoned island somewhere."

I dropped the serious face. "What are you doing?"

"Well. You know I've done some research into historical spiritual beliefs. So, what I've done is I've taken one of the old rituals I've found, and I'm trying to see if it actually produces any measurable effect."

"Huh. Does it?"

Insook shook a finger at me. "I can't tell you that! Not until I publish my results. Besides, I haven't had enough volunteers yet to draw any meaningful conclusions."

"That explains the bribery."

"It's not bribery! It's an alternative option to the exam. Perfectly above board."

I wasn't so sure about that, but anti-corruption law wasn't exactly my specialty. "What's the ritual?"

"It's more like a guided meditation than a ritual. Have you ever heard of chakras?"

"No. Should I have?"

Insook shook her head. "Not unless you like to read ancient texts from the other side of the globe."

I knew the other side of the globe was just ocean, but figured she had to mean the eastern edge of the Earth Kingdom. "So, what are they? Bugs?"

"Chakras are pools of swirling energy within the body, flowing from the tailbone to the top of the head. My texts claim that if you 'open' each chakra," she said, making quote marks with her fingers in the air, "you'll gain some kind of enlightenment or spiritual powers."

I raised an eyebrow. I had learned plenty about anatomy and chi paths in my firebending training and never once heard of any "swirly pools of energy."

"I know! If doing the ritual has the chance to give someone spirit powers, why isn't it something everybody knows about? Why isn't everybody doing it all the time?"

These all sounded like good questions, but... "Why not?"

"My theory, to put it simply, is that people forgot. I don't think the idea ever spread far beyond the eastern coast of the Earth Kingdom, and then between the burning of the Air Temples and the Hundred Years' War..." She shrugged. "Something like a hundred-thousand texts got destroyed in the Eastern Air Temple alone."

I made a sympathetic noise. "Has it worked in your experiments?"

Insook opened her mouth to explain, eyes wide and excited, but she hesitated, pulling back. "Didn't I just tell you I can't tell you?" She smiled and took a sip of her tea. "I have a way you could find out though."

"Oh? What's that?"

"You could participate in my experiment," she said in a sing-song voice. She made it sound like she was joking, but there was an intensity in her eyes that said otherwise.

"Okay. Sure."

Insook blinked. "Wait, really?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

Insook squealed and leaned across the gap between our chairs to give me an awkward sort of hug. "Ooh, thank you! You don't know how badly I need participants."

"You're welcome. Maybe you could help me with something too?"

"What kind of something?" She pulled at a loose strand of hair, twisting it around her finger.

I cleared my throat. "It's for work. I'm looking for someone who can tell me something about 'old souls'—people who remember parts of their past lives."

"Oh. Sure! I could tell you about that. What do you want to know?"

I got out my logbook. "How does it work? Is there a way to tell if someone is an old soul?"

"Beyond someone just saying they are one, you mean."

I nodded.

Insook closed her eyes and tapped one finger against her nose, thinking. After maybe a full thirty seconds, she opened her eyes again only to stare off into space as she spoke. "It's like this. Think about spirits. They're not like animals. They don't have cells, they don't reproduce like we do, they don't even have to eat. So, what are they?"

"Uh..." I said, at something of a loss. _What did she mean by cells? Like prison cells?_

"Information." Insook answered her own question. "A set of instructions—how to look, how to behave and interact—held together with ectoplasm. Now, all material things have a little spirit in them, including people and animals. So, when you die, _usually_ , that glob of spirit information dissipates, like it would if a true spirit was destroyed. But sometimes, if you happen to have a bigger or more coherent spirit information glob, it won't dissipate and instead will adhere to a blank slate."

"A baby," I said, though my mind was reeling.

"Precisely," Insook said as questions tore through my thoughts. _Did I have ectoplasm in my arm, not metal? If Spikes had left information in me, what kind of information was it? What did that even_ mean?

Insook leaned towards me, head tilted to one side. "Are you okay?"

I blinked. "Yeah. I'm fine." I took a sip of tea to prove it.

"Really? Because you look pale. I mean more pale. Extra pale?" She blushed. I didn't know why, but it was cute. "Anyway, to answer your original question, the only verifiable way to prove someone is an old soul is to corroborate their previous life's memories. There's devices that'll detect spirit energy, but nowhere near the degree of precision you'd need for what you're thinking of."

"Uh-huh." That was much like I had expected, though the implications for the reason _why_ left me with, frankly, too many questions. I made a note and tried to get through my most practical questions as quickly as I could, realizing I was due back at the office sooner rather than later.

Insook told me what more she could before I had to run and she had to prepare for her next class, but she did give me a peck on the cheek as I headed out the door with the promise that she would call me again sometime soon. I thanked her and said goodbye, and that was it. Bolin would have said it was unromantic, but that was his opinion (as I imagined it in my head), not mine.

####

Back at the office, I sat at my desk, feet up among the papers while Hyen and I tossed a ball back and forth, discussing what I'd learned from Insook. Everyone else was out and about, leaving us free to act like children.

"There has to be a better word for it than 'congealed glob of spirit energy,'" Hyen said throwing the ball to me with a practiced overhand.

"Insook said 'spiritualized memories' to mean the same thing. How about that?" I caught the ball and passed it from hand to hand before throwing back it again.

"Sure. I guess it doesn't matter. She didn't say how to ID someone with this thing, did she?"

I shrugged. "Same way you'd confirm an alibi. Ask around, cross-check stories, get written records."

"No magical detection technique though."

"No."

We sat in silence for a minute, Hyen bouncing the ball against the ground.

"What do you think?" I prompted.

Hyen grimaced, sucked in air between his teeth. "Three things. First, double-check the known victims, besides the two we already confirmed, and find out how many, if any, were old souls. Or whatever you want to call them."

"The parents might not know, if the kids never mentioned it," I pointed out.

"True." Hyen threw the ball at me and I caught it one-handed. "But we can't do anything about that. Second thing is legwork. Find more of these people in the city, keep tabs on them, see if any of them have gone missing."

"How? We don't have that info in our database. Run an ad in the paper?" I offered as an answer to my own question.

"Maybe. Or see if they have a club or something. I'm sure not going door-to-door."

I threw the ball at him. "Third thing?"

Hyen put the ball back in his desk. "Third thing is why a spirit would want to go after these people."

I pulled at my chin in thought. I'd had some time to consider it on my ride back to Headquarters. "I don't know how much this changes our earlier theory that the spirit is attracted to people with extra spiritual energy. It probably still is. But..."

Hyen remained silent as I put my thoughts to words. "It's looking for memories. Chunks of information. It wants to know something."

Hyen murmured agreement, motioned for me to continue.

"It's gotta be a pretty big, major spirit to have a goal like that, since minor spirits are just too..." I winced, not wanting to insult the magical beings worshiped by humans everywhere.

"Weak?"

I shook my head. "Stupid. And like, think about the kind of information it's going after. Memories of being human. If it wanted to know... I dunno... learn how to build a radio or how to drive a car, couldn't it look someplace else? There's libraries in the spirit world."

"There's not a spirit of humanity, is there?" Hyen asked.

"I don't think so." What would a spirit like that even look like? How would it act? People were all so different, I didn't think a single entity could represent the entirety of humanity. I shook my head. "I'm wondering if it's the spirit of a person. A ghost."

Hyen looked at me in surprise. "A ghost. Yeah, maybe. Some kind of lost soul—or whatever—wandering around, wanting to be human but unable to reincarnate. It's a good theory, but we should see if we can't think of anything else." He wasn't dismissing the idea, just reminding me that it was dangerous to get too invested in one single idea and blind yourself to other options.

I nodded and turned the conversation back to more immediate, practical things. "So, legwork. How _is_ your leg?"

"Stinky, but otherwise fine." He got the ball out again and tossed it to me. "How's your arm?"

"It's fine."

"Really?" He motioned for me to pass the ball back.

"Yes, really." I tossed, Hyen caught.

"Then why do you only throw with your left?"

I blinked.

"I know you're not a south paw. Did you ever go to the doctor after that kid attacked you?"

It took me a moment to remember my falsehood about the kids who had tried to steal my bike. "It's just taking a while to heal."

Hyen grunted and didn't press the issue.

####

The Snatcher case continued to plod along. Hyen and I were busy, but it felt like the progress we got wasn't proportional to the amount of work we were putting in. It was a wonder Vani hadn't reassigned us yet.

Back home again, I collapsed on the sofa and just sat there for a long minute, wondering if it was worth the effort to try to meditate, or if I should just make some dinner and listen to National Variety Hour. Food and entertainment won, though I did have one chore first. I got up, found the morning's newspaper and took my daily photo.

The roll of film was going to run out soon, and I still hadn't figured out how to get the pictures developed. Asking Bei Fong to do it was probably my best bet, but I didn't want to have her see the photos. I ought to do it though, especially since I had to talk to her anyway about the adventure Opal and I went on.

Photo taken, I put my shirt back on. The scales were still spreading of course—there was an uncomfortable patch on my shoulder blade now—but at least it was in a somewhat predictable and uniform way. Easier on my psyche than periodic surprises at any rate.

With that out of the way, I went to the kitchen and started up the stove and the radio. A singer warbled over the airwaves, a little too old-fashioned and cheery for my taste, but at least she had a nice voice.

The phone rang a few minutes into my prep and instantly my heart was in my throat. Insook had said she'd call sometime soon, but was that same day too soon to count as "sometime soon"? I turned off the radio and answered the phone.

"Hey, bro."

"Bolin? Don't tell me you finally joined the modern era and got a telephone."

"I'm at Grandma's."

I winced. "Is everything okay?"

"She's fine. I don't need an excuse to visit." There was a pause, and then a husky whisper, " _It's ramen night."_

I smiled to myself. "Tell everybody hi for me."

"Aye-aye, captain." There was a pause, and then in a quiet voice Bolin said, "Opal said you had something to tell me."

"Oh. Yeah, just not over the phone, okay?" Grandma had a party line and a house full of relatives. Not exactly private.

"Okay. I'll stop by after work. Can I tell Grandma about Insook?"

"What? No."

Bolin gasped. "Did she not accept your apology?"

"Yes, she did."

"But things aren't going anywhere."

"No, we're still talking."

"By talking, do you mean dating?"

"I..." I resisted the urge to hang up on him. I didn't really want to talk about this, but it was like Opal had said—he was my brother and I was _supposed_ to talk to him, even if all he ever did was tease me about these things. "I don't know. I talked to her today and she said she'd call me sometime."

"Mm. Taking it slow. You gotta make a move sometime though. Isn't she moving back to the North Pole eventually?"

My heart sank. "Yeah, I guess she is."

Bolin launched into a story about some friend of a coworker who followed a girl to the Fire Nation, but got cut off by a cousin trying to use the line. I let him go and returned to my cooking, thinking about transoceanic travel and the disappointing inconvenience of it. I winced as something spasmed in my arm and the pan I was flipping dropped from my grip, spilling vegetables all over the stove. I shuddered and cleaned up the mess, thoughts derailed.


	26. Chapter 26

26

Hyen and I were just getting off a phone conversation with the Head of Spiritual Studies at the university when Bei Fong's secretary showed up and directed me to the Chief's office.

Bei Fong looked up from the reports she was reading and waved the secretary away, closing the door behind him. "How's the Snatcher case going?"

"It's... going," I said, and explained the thread we were following at the moment, discussing old souls with the university-types and trying to find ways to identify and locate them.

"Have you asked Tenzin or Jinora?"

I nodded. "I spoke with Tenzin, but the university's been more helpful." I hadn't asked Jinora yet, since I didn't think her people-finding powers would work for this situation, but she was next on my list if the professors didn't pan out.

"Good work. Keep at it."

I gave her a salute, knowing that couldn't be everything. If it was just the Snatcher case, she would have dragged Hyen up as well.

There was a moment of quiet and Bei Fong motioned for me to sit across from her.

"So," she said, leaning in with a quiet, conspiratorial tone. "I had an interesting conversation with your brother the other day."

I nodded. "Pema thought it was time to move forward."

"And how did that go?"

I shrugged. "About what I expected. We haven't visited all of them yet, but out of the ones we have, a lot of them want to go into the..." I glanced at the door, wondering just how far that secretary had gone. "You know. Opal and I have them just writing letters for now. I took notes if you want to see them." I'd left my logbook down in the office, and suddenly I wished I hadn't. Not that I suspected anyone would snoop on me, but there was a lot of sensitive information in that book and it was impossible to be too careful with it.

"Good. Drop them off here when you can. I want to read them before our next meeting."

"Meeting?"

"Didn't Bolin tell you?"

"Ah, no. He must have forgot. We have a meeting?"

Bei Fong shook her head, presumably at Bolin. "Your house, at seven tonight."

"Oh," I said, my thoughts instantly going to how untidy my apartment was and if I needed to buy anything, what I would do if Insook happened to call, or one of the neighbors needed help with something... I didn't have a valid excuse to postpone the meeting however, and there were things we needed to talk about.

"See you then, Detective. If your partner asks why I only called you up, blame the stairs." Bei Fong bent the door open for me and I took my leave.

####

At two minutes to seven, I got a knock on my door. It was Bolin and Opal, with Bei Fong right behind them, looking out of place in street clothes.

"Are Jinora and Tenzin coming?" I asked as I closed the door behind them.

"No, Pema convinced them not to," Opal said.

That made sense. If Pema had bowed out because she wanted to keep her family safe, she couldn't very well let her daughter and husband continue being involved.

I took a moment to drag the three extra chairs back to the kitchen and the four of us sat down in my living room.

With a thank you, Bei Fong handed me my logbook with my notes on the visits Opal and I had made and had the two of us summarize what had happened and list the people we still were yet to contact.

"Good. Keep at it and let me know when you've finished. Mako, how did you and Bolin get into the Quarantine without being seen?"

I glanced at Bolin, worried about where she might be going with this question. "Tuan told me where I could jump the fence. Why?"

"Where exactly? Could you do it again?"

"I could." I smoothed back my hair. "You want me to take the families there?"

Bei Fong shook her head. "I want you to deliver those letters and bring home everyone they've got trapped in there."

I frowned. "But they don't want to."

"They will if they get heartfelt letters begging them to come home," Bei Fong said, folding her arms.

"What about it being illegal to sneak in there?" She'd backed me up on this point during our last meeting.

"That's just a risk we'll have to take. I'll do what I can to back you up comes down to it."

That was encouraging.

"Wouldn't it be easier for Opal to sneak in?" Bolin asked. "Or you or me?"

"Mako's got a rapport with them. They'll be more likely to trust him than a couple random kids. No offense."

"What if Opal...?" Bolin asked and I found myself zoning out of the conversation.

I was fully resigned to the fact that I would have to go back into the Quarantine, even though I was sure the possessed would either beat me up again or not let me leave, or both. At least I had backup this time who could get me out if things went sour.

But what was I supposed to tell them? ' _Hey, sorry I bailed on that search for the Avatar you sent me on and now I'm doing that thing you explicitly told me you didn't want me to do. Here's some letters from people who think you're dead. Also I killed your pet snake spirit.'_

This was going to go well.

Opal interrupted my thoughts. "Mako, what do you think?"

I looked up. "Huh? Yeah, that's fine," I said, hoping no one would notice my distraction.

Bei Fong nodded. "Then it's settled. Mako, when are your next days off?"

Vani wasn't great at giving her subordinates regular schedules and I had to think for a moment. "The seventeenth and eighteenth." Two days from now.

"Perfect. Make the rest of your visits then, have Opal and Bolin pick up the letters. Once those are ready, I'll get you the time off to make contact."

I was supposed to start Insook's experiment between now and then, but hopefully that would be finished before I had to go get the chi kicked out of me by my fellow abominations. I grunted an agreement.

Bolin clapped his hands to his knees. "Sounds like a plan. Anything else?"

Opal gave me a pointed look. "I think Mako has something he needs to tell you."

I scowled at her and she wrinkled her nose back at me.

"Something personal?" Bei Fong asked.

I sighed and closed my eyes. "No."

"No, it's not personal, or no, you don't have something to tell me?" Bolin asked in a half joking kind of voice.

I hesitated, and Opal kicked my shin. "Fine. It's not a big deal. It's just _this_ ," I tapped my damaged hand with my good one, "is getting worse." I shrugged. "It's not that bad. I've been monitoring it."

"Oh." Bolin looked between me and Opal, lips pressed thin with worry. "Should we get a healer?"

"No, I don't need a healer."

"Really? 'Cause I know a guy who knows a guy. Super discreet, we could have him sign a contract or something to not tell anybody."

"It's fine, Bo. If it wasn't, I'd tell you."

"Okay," Bolin said in a quiet voice.

We sat in silence for a long, increasingly awkward minute until Bei Fong jumped to her feet.

"Good talk, kids. I'll see you all in a few days. Let me know if anything comes up." With that she saw herself out, slamming the door behind her. Opal and Bolin took that as their cue to leave as well, and I was left alone.

####

It was evening, after work, and I was on one of the upper levels of an old and pleasantly musty university building, filling out paperwork.

"Just remember," Insook said as I signed my name on the third and final consent form, "there's no shame in backing out. The ritual is long and deeply personal and I will not be offended or disappointed in any way if you decide it is too much.

"I will be recording the ritual with an Auditron Electric Phono-recorder, but I will be the only one with access to those recordings, and if you want, I can destroy them once the final paper is published. Do you have any questions?"

"Ah, no. I don't think so." She'd already explained the fasting, the special teas and snacks she would provide, and how the ritual itself would involve sitting in a warm, dimly lit room for several hours over the course of a few days.

"Good. Oh! Did I mention you can't tell anyone about the contents of the ritual who hasn't participated? At least not until the-"

"Until the paper is published," I said with her in unison. "You said."

Insook blushed. "I... Yes, I did. It's just, I've been getting stronger reactions than I'd expected and I'd rather not... hurt you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Even if there were electric shocks involved, I don't think this could hurt me."

Insook bit her lip and nodded. She put my paperwork in a folder and beckoned for me to follow her into the previously explained dimly lit room.

"The original ritual called for onion-banana juice, but I'd rather not gross out my participants, so instead I'm offering, as an option, a piece of onion, banana and some tea."

I sat on the rug in the middle of the room and accepted the offered plate and cup. I probably would have drank the onion-banana juice if she'd made it, but I was glad she hadn't. The raw onion still left a nasty taste in my mouth, but maybe that was the point—to give me something novel to focus my meditation on.

Insook moved about the room, lighting incense and putting red shades on the lamps in the corners of the room. Finally, she turned on a phonograph playing a soft recording of bells, then took my plate and cup, set them aside and sat across from me on the rug.

"Place your hands on your knees, palms up, thumb and middle finger pressed together. Close your eyes," Insook intoned.

I did as she instructed, began focusing on my breath.

"Imagine a line of energy moving up your body. It tries to flow, but there are places where it gets caught, snagged on emotional baggage. These are our chakras. In order to open our chakras and let the energy flow, we must clear away this blockage."

I imagined the line, glowing like a finger of flame, bisecting me down the middle. But there were spots where the flame sputtered and smoked, trying to burn imperfections in the fuel. A little different from her description of "flowing energy," but it worked for me.

"The first chakra is the earth chakra, located at the base of the spine. It deals with survival and is blocked by fear. What are you afraid of?"

I breathed and thought about the question, suddenly very aware of my tailbone. This was a very different style of meditation than what I knew, where the goal was to let go of my thoughts, not dwell on them.

Survival and fear. There were certainly things I was afraid of—of getting hurt on the job, of letting someone else get hurt, of losing someone. But these weren't fears tied to my own survival. Most of them weren't even tied to my own well-being.

I was past the point in my life where survival was an issue. I had a career now, and a home and a family I didn't visit as much as I should. I wasn't risking my life to save my friends or my city or the world, I wasn't walking the razor's edge between Zolt and the law, I wasn't struggling every day just to keep myself warm and fed. I'd made it.

But had I really? I'd gone and gotten myself involved in this mess with the possessed, and there was a very real chance I'd get found out. That Raiko would throw me in jail, I'd lose my job, lose my apartment, lose my self as the remnant of the snake spirit slowly consumed me from the outside in.

I was lost, cold, hungry and unrecognizable. Dying.

A bead of sweat trickled out from under my hair.

"What do you see?" The quiet voice mixed with the sound of the bells and I wasn't even sure if I'd heard it or only imagined it.

"I'm alone. Everything I've worked for, everyone I risked my life for is gone. I..." The words caught in my throat, painful.

"You have things that _can't_ be taken away. Everything you've learned, every skill you've honed, you'll keep forever. Let these fears flow away. You will survive better without them."

I breathed, realizing that at some point I'd stopped, that I'd abandoned my meditation pose, one hand clenched against my chest, the other on the ground to keep me from falling over. I resumed the position, sitting up straight with my hands on my knees.

"Feel your fears float away."

Again I imagined the line of fire running through me, the sparks and black smoke diminished, but not all the way gone.

I sat for a while longer, listening to the recording and tasting onion in the back of my throat, waiting for my heart to calm down and thinking about the things I had that couldn't be taken away and how, no matter how much I lost, I could always build it back up.

I opened my eyes and found Insook watching me.

"You have opened your earth chakra." She stood and offered me her hand. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

I took it and let her help me to my feet. "Actually... Do you have time for a drink?" I'd been planning on asking her since before signing the paperwork, and now seemed like a good time to ask.

She looked surprised. "I... Yes, that sounds nice. Just let me tidy up here. Did you have some place in mind?"

"I'm sure we can find something." The neighborhood might have been pretty well destroyed, but with the university up and running it was bouncing back quickly.

Insook nodded. "Give me a minute. I'll meet you in the hall."

I stepped out and waited for her to get ready, leaning against the open window, enjoying the post-meditation peace. The fears I'd been made to think of still floated in the back of my mind, but somehow they seemed unimportant.

Insook joined me after a few minutes and we walked down to the ground level and wandered through the campus, not talking. Not too much later, we found ourselves in a art-filled tea shop catering to overworked and over-stimulated students.

I examined the art for a minute or two, debating with myself about what to say, while Insook stared off into space, tapping her thumbnail against the teacup.

"Did you-"

"So, what-"

The two of us tried to speak at the same time and cut ourselves off. Insook gave a breathy laugh and waved for me to go first.

"Did you do the ritual yourself?"

"I did. I had my mentor guide me through it after we deciphered the scroll."

"How was it?" I asked, quickly adding, "If you're allowed to say."

Insook sipped her tea. "It was... intense. It hurt at the time, but in the end it was worth it. Not because I got spirit powers, but because it made me think about certain things in a way I hadn't before."

"Like what?"

"Like... Like with the earth chakra. The first week I moved to Qaniq, I got mugged. He wasn't a bender or anything, just a guy with a knife, but that got me so scared I didn't go outside by myself for a month. And even for a long time after I avoided things—that street where I got mugged, going out at night—even though I _knew_ it was statistically unlikely to happen again.

"I was _surviving,_ but my fear wasn't letting me live. So I just kind of... let it go. I mean, they were still there, but I just..."

"Decided they weren't important," I finished.

She gave me a small smile. "Right."

We sat in silence for a minute, and I thought about not letting fears be important and how to phrase the next question I wanted to ask.

"Are you going to go home again?"

Insook spluttered into her tea, then wiped her mouth. "I think so. Maybe."

"Maybe?"

She let out a little laugh. "I don't know. Depends what you mean by home. I'll definitely go back to Qaniq, but to my home town?" She shrugged. "I'm a world traveler now. I've studied things most of them have never even heard of. If I go back, what will we have to talk about? Fish and Uncle Kushan's weird rash? I know the Water Tribes are supposed embrace change, but..."

"It's a lot of change," I said.

"Mm." Insook murmured her agreement and the conversation lulled.

I took a sip of my tea, waiting for the air to clear a little, then asked, "Do you want to?"

Insook sighed and rotated her teacup in her fingers. "I want to go back to Qaniq. It's where my mentor and my friends are. Not to mention I _have_ to go back if I want to finish my degree." She glanced up at me and winced. "Not that I don't like it here! I do. The folks at the Air Temple have been incredibly welcoming, I'm enjoying my classes and my research... it's just... people."

"When do you go back?"

"After two academic terms, so spring of next year. Or midsummer, if I want to stay as long as possible." She sighed and I winced.

"I didn't mean to make you homesick."

She smiled. "I am a little, but that's okay. I just made you face your deepest fears, so we're a little closer to even now." She bit her lip, more worried than sad. "Was it okay? I mean, is it okay that I know that stuff? Not that you said a whole lot, but I know it's all very personal and-"

"It's fine. I can tell you the rest if you want."

She nodded, her blue eyes wide.

I took one more drink of my tea and told her my story—losing my parents, growing up on the streets, taking care of Bolin and getting thrown in with the Avatar. I skimped on some details, not wanting to overwhelm her, and she reacted about how I expected. Patting my hand and lamenting my loss, saying I was brave and that she had no idea what she would do if the Avatar asked her to help save the world.

I was pretty sure Korra had never explicitly asked me, _hey, Mako, you wanna help save the world_ , but she was the Avatar. She didn't need to ask.

"Wow," Insook said once I'd given her the broad strokes and caught up with the present day. "I don't know what to say. You're really only twenty-three? You've done more stuff than most people do in their entire lifetimes. Fighting terrorists, traveling the world, toppling dictators... I guess being a cop is downright relaxing in comparison. You said you met her playing pro-bending, but how'd you go from _that_ to saving the whole freaking world? Are you some kind of prodigy or something? Is that why she recruited you?"

I shook my head. "I'm no prodigy." Contrary to the rumors, my skill came from necessity and practice. Lightning put me above average, but I couldn't get that to work half the time and had conflicted feelings about it anyway.

"Then what?"

"Ah, well..." I tugged at my collar. "We dated for a while. Off and on."

"Seriously. The Avatar. You and the Avatar." She pressed her fists together to represent a relationship.

"Me and the Avatar."

She stared at me in disbelief for a minute. "Good for you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Thanks?"

"I'm serious! How many guys can say they've dated the single most powerful person in the world? I don't know how many men there are on the planet, but that puts you way above one in a million."

"I guess I hadn't thought of it like that."

"You're welcome."

I gave her a bemused look. The conversation lulled again and I tried to frame the question I'd been steering towards the whole conversation. "So... What about us?"

"Us?"

I nodded.

Insook sat up very straight in her chair, forearms braced against the table. "Well, I want to try. Even if it was a rocky start. And, well... we both know I'm not going to be here forever, but I _am_ going to be here for a while and I'd like to... have some fun while I'm here. I'm sorry it can't be anything more serious, but ten months is a long time and maybe something will happen between now and then. Not that I'm-" She cut herself off. "Sorry. I'm rambling."

"Ten months." Maybe that was for the best. I didn't know what was going to happen to me in the near future, so why would I want something more long term? Besides, I'd enjoyed the time we'd spent together so far, despite the "rocky start," and I wanted that to continue.

"Is... Is that okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's okay."

Insook smiled and leaned in over the table, eyes half-closed. "So. What do we do now?"

I leaned forward too, as though pulled by a magnet. I stopped though, aware of how impulsive actions had come back to bite me in the past, especially where other people—where _romance—_ was involved.

"Can I kiss you?"

Insook grabbed my elbow, gently pulled me across the table, touched my nose with hers, turned her head and pressed her lips against mine. Her breath was sweet from the tea she'd ordered and I was lost in the sensation, better than any sunny day or warm shower.

Eventually we broke apart and just sat for a while, enjoying each other's company before Insook had to catch her ride back to the island. I retrieved my bike and rode for home, happy.


	27. Chapter 27

27

Back at my apartment, I unearthed the camera and the day's paper for yet another photograph, only to have my heart jump in my chest. A handful of scales sloughed off of their own accord, sticking to the gauze and scattering on the floor. Looking further, the change wasn't as good as it first seemed, as rusted metal wrapped over my collarbone, spreading almost to my throat.

I let out a whimper, immediately glad I was alone and Insook wasn't there. Pliers. It had come to that. I snapped the photo, not bothering to hide the disgust on my face, and retrieved my toolbox from the entryway closet.

Twenty minutes later, the bathroom was a mess of blood and metal and half a bottle of alcohol disinfectant that I'd knocked over in my haste to get the job done, pulling scales from my chest and neck. And then, since I'd already got going, all the ones on my hand as well. By the end I was sweaty and exhausted, praying to whatever spirits that might be listening to keep this horror from spreading. Or if it had to spread, just keep it on my skin. I didn't want to die with my heart or lungs turned into metal.

I washed, cleaned up the mess and went to bed, unable to sleep.

####

I woke the next morning to someone pounding on my front door, feeling like I'd had better sleep on park benches and trash piles. I groaned, threw a robe on and went to check on the door.

It was Opal, trying to peer into my apartment through the spy hole. I opened the door for her and she quickly stepped inside, closing it behind her.

"What happened to you?" she demanded.

I held up one finger. "Ten minutes." I went back into my room and started getting dressed while Opal questioned me through the door.

"You messed with the possession, didn't you?" She sighed, loud enough for me to hear her through the wood separating us. "You said you'd leave it alone, Mako. At least until we're done talking to the families. And then once this is all over, we'll get you a healer to fix it all, no problem."

"I had to," I called back, trying to locate a clean pair of socks. "It... it got worse."

"Worse how?" she asked, the accusation in her voice turning to worry.

"Just spreading again."

"Did you do anything? What about your theories? You said you had theories."

I groaned, pulling on socks, pants, a shirt. "I don't know. I did some meditation, and then I forgot about it for a while. I think as long as I keep thinking about it, it won't spread." It could have been from the "earth chakra" thing in Insook's ritual, but I'd meditated with Jinora before and that hadn't done anything. No, the only new thing was my relationship with Insook, and how, during those couple hours in the tea shop, I'd more or less forgotten my looming problem. As long as I thought about it, focused on the scales not spreading, they wouldn't. Right?

"If you're sure," Opal mumbled through the door. "I could remind you if you think that will help."

"Sure," I said, though I didn't think I was going to have any problem remembering it today. Not with what we were doing.

####

Once I was ready for the day, Opal and I saddled up again and hit the town. She'd offered to bring Juicy for transportation rather than my bike, but in the end we'd decided against it—the motorcycle was more inconspicuous and could, in well-lit, highly trafficked areas, be left unattended for long periods of time.

We spent most of the day hunting down the last of the families Jinora had been able to identify, working as a well-oiled team to break the news. We managed to find the rest of them and leave a substantial number of business cards, before retracing our steps to meet again with the ones we'd already spoken with, pick up letters and put them in touch with one another if they so desired.

The minute Tuan's wife, Ailan, let us into her house, she held my business card up to my nose in an accusatory way. "Is this the correct number?"

I took half a step back and bumped my heel into the closed door. "Ah, yes?"

"Then why haven't you answered it?"

I cleared my throat and regained my composure. "I do have a regular job, ma'am. But I'm usually home evenings if you want to try then."

Ailan pressed on. "Have you contacted the others? My husband?"

"Not yet," Opal said. "But we'll meet with them tonight. Do you have anything you want to send with us?"

"Of course I do." She passed off two envelopes sealed with tape and I put them in my bag, surreptitiously checking my watch to count the number of hours I had left. Opal was going to drop me off a few hours after dark, making my day off an extremely long one, since I had one other duty to attend to between now and then.

####

"Next is the water chakra."

I sat opposite Insook again, left hand cradling my right in my lap, thumbs pressed together, honestly looking forward to these few minutes of calm and stillness.

The room was a little different from last time, as per the ritual. Insook had swapped the red shade for an orange one, and a different recording was playing, though the incense was the same, and she'd given me more onion and banana to eat. My tongue felt sticky.

"This chakra," Insook intoned, "is located in the groin. It deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt."

I cracked one eye to look at her through the orange light, but she seemed unfazed and unembarrassed. I closed my eye and imagined the line of fire again.

"What do you blame yourself for?"

This was a harder question than the one from yesterday. Fears were easy and obvious, while guilt was something I tried to avoid. I avoided doing things that might make me feel it and in general avoided even thinking about it. But for the sake of the experiment, I opened up that box.

For a while, I'd blamed myself for letting that firebender get Mom and Dad, but that was a long time ago and I didn't feel that way anymore. I'd been a little kid, untrained and unprepared and there was nothing I could have done. That guilt was long dried up and gone.

I blamed myself for Korra and Asami getting together, but that wasn't really a bad thing. For them, it had seemed like something good, even if it made me confused. That feeling wasn't quite guilt, but something similar.

Then what? Were there people I had actually hurt?

Maybe not physically, but yes. I'd hurt Insook by scaring her without meaning to. I'd hurt Asami by not communicating, not being honest with her. I'd hurt Bolin by not taking care of him.

I winced. For a long time, Bolin had been the only person in the world I'd cared about, myself included. And yet I kept picking fights with him over stupid things I should have let go. I still kept getting him involved in things he didn't need to be a part of, or letting him get into bad situations when I could have kept him safe.

I should have learned that lesson when I'd pulled us out of the Triple Threats, but I hadn't. I-

"What do you see?"

"I'm being irresponsible." Bolin's face swam before me, flames reflected in his eyes. "I hurt him and put him in dangerous situations when I should have known better."

"Does he forgive you?"

 _Always,_ I thought, though the word didn't make it out of my mouth. I nodded.

"Then so should you."

Bolin didn't blame me for everything bad that had ever happened, and he wasn't an idiot. I should follow his example, for once. I breathed, returned to my visualization, the flame burning cleaner and more brightly than before. After a while the recording ended. I opened my eyes to see Insook get up to restart it and I got up myself.

She glanced at me and nodded. "You have opened your water chakra. We still have five chakras to go, but this is as much as we'll do tonight. Remember to fast tomorrow and think about what you have experienced between now and then."

She bowed to me and I returned the gesture. I thanked her with a little kiss, made my way out of the musty university building.

Back home, I grabbed some dumplings from the shop next door, stuffed my face and lay down on the couch, trying to get some rest before that night's adventures.

Far too soon, Opal came knocking, and we took off into the sky, skirting the more well-lit areas as we made our way towards the quarantine. I may have zoned out during the planning session, but I'd picked up enough to know what was going on. Opal was going to air drop me into the quarantine, then meet me later near the weak spot in the fence. If I didn't show up before a predetermined time, she would telephone Jinora and the two of them would come to the rescue.

I seriously hoped that wouldn't be necessary.

####

I landed hard on the dirt three or four blocks from the fence, on the quarantine side. It was dark, with the moon hidden behind thin clouds, though the portal gave off enough eerie light to see by. Opal gave me a stern and silent nod, and with a phlegmy grumble Juicy took off again. I tugged down my hood trying to hide my face in shadow and started towards the re-purposed library. Or at least where I thought it was.

There were maybe twelve or thirteen letters in my bag—the ones we'd spent the morning collecting. I'd agreed to get them to Tuan and the rest, but I had never said specifically how, and I was pretty sure I had a way to do it without ever actually speaking with any of them.

As I walked, I wondered if I was messing up the chakras Insook claimed I'd opened. Was I letting fear rule my actions by not going to see Tuan directly? Or was I being irresponsible, making myself guilty by not doing what Opal and the rest expected me to do?

I didn't really have a way to know though, so I pushed the thoughts aside and focused on what I was doing.

Rounding a corner, I took a moment to burn an arrow into the side of a tree to mark which way I'd gone. I was _not_ going to get lost this time.

After fifteen minutes or so I came to an open square and stopped, figuring this was close enough.

"An Zhu! Hey, An Zhu!" I shouted, not too loud, cupping one hand around my mouth. I waited, trying to peer as best as I could into the shadows between the trees and buildings, looking for the weird green spirit. I shouted a few more times, wondering if I should try meditating instead, to see if I could tap into whatever spirit powers I might have.

"Come on. I know you're here somewhere," I told the clouds.

"Shouldn't you be asleep right now?" An Zhu popped into existence beside me, sitting on a broken stretch of wall, its little legs swinging. "I thought humans were supposed to sleep at night."

I blinked at it through the darkness, called up a little light so we could see each other better.

"We don't have to," I said, wondering why the question sounded so familiar. "Listen. I was hoping you could help me with something."

It clapped its hands. "I can help! Help with what?"

"Well, a couple of things. An errand, and I've got some questions I wanted to ask you."

"Sure! I know lots of things. What do you want me to do?"

"Questions first?"

An Zhu nodded, or rather, rocked in place. It didn't really have a neck, so for it, nodding was a full body movement.

"Mind if I sit?"

"No." An Zhu giggled. "That's an easy one."

I hopped up and sat on the wall next to the spirit, slipped the strap of my bag over my head and set it on my other side, careful of the flames I was holding.

"You're a spirit right?"

"Mm-hmm. And you're a human."

"Right. Being a spirit, do you know what spirits are made of?"

"Umm, spirit stuff."

"You mean ectoplasm?"

An Zhu gave me a confused smile.

I tried again. "Do you know what ectoplasm is?"

"No. Do you?"

"No."

"Oh well." It swung its legs, hummed a few notes then turned towards me. "What's your name?"

I looked at it in surprise. "Mako." Did it really not remember me? It had only been a few weeks since I'd seen it last.

"Nice to meet you, Mako. You can call me An Zhu. Where are you from?"

"Uh, Ubdo neighborhood. Why?"

"That's nice. I hear it's pretty there." The spirit pushed itself off the wall, landed on its belly and struggled for a moment before getting up again. "Well, it was nice meeting you. Goodbye." It started waddling off into the dark.

"Wait!" I got off the wall and marched after it. "I've still got more questions."

"Questions?" An Zhu stopped in its tracks. "For me? I know lots of things!"

I was beginning to doubt that, but I pressed on. "Do you know how to tell what kind of spirit something is?"

"Oh, sure. Just ask them."

"Oh." I hadn't thought it would be that simple. "What about you? What kind of spirit are you?"

There was a long pause, and An Zhu's form seemed to waver and stretch in the firelight. "Me? I'm the last moment of sweetness. The end of summer. The portent of things going pear shaped." As it spoke, its voice deepened, losing its cheer and bubbliness.

I shivered.

Then the spirit seemed to revert back to its normal self. "But you can call me An Zhu!"

Suddenly aware that the dumpy pear spirit might be more powerful than I'd thought, I bowed to it. "Thank you, An Zhu. Can I ask you something else?"

"Sure! I know lots of things!"

"Mm." The way it kept repeating itself was off-putting, but I pressed on. "Why did you leave the spirit world?"

"The Avatar opened the portal."

"Right, but why?"

"The... portal," it said in a broken kind of way, though it quickly brightened again. "Why did you leave the spirit world?"

"Because I live here."

An Zhu beamed. "Me too! Do you want to see my home?"

"No, that's okay." I still had more questions—I always had more questions—but this was not the main purpose of tonight's mission. "Listen. Remember that errand I mentioned? Do you think you could carry some letters for me?"

"Uh-huh!" The spirit held out its pudgy hands and made a grabbing motion.

"One second." I rushed back to the wall where I'd set my bag and got out the letters. "Can you take these to Tuan and the other humans?"

"I can!"

I started to hand over the letters, then reconsidered and amended my request. "Can you give them to Tuan and then come back here and tell me he got them?"

"Right here. Sure thing."

"Come back straight away," I said and handed over the stack of letters. An Zhu grabbed them and faded from sight. I sighed and rubbed my face with my free hand, checked the time and extinguished the light to let my eyes readjust to the darkness. I still had some time before Opal would get worried, so I leaned against the broken wall, keeping an eye open for danger.

####

"Hello, Mako!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin as An Zhu appeared next to me, sitting on the wall, legs swinging. At some point I'd stopped paying attention to my surroundings, tired and lost in my own thoughts.

"An Zhu. Did you deliver the letters?"

An Zhu rocked in place. "Yep! Tuan said ' _what the Hell is this_ ,' and _'show me where he is.'_ "

"Did you?"

"Did what?"

"Show him where I am?"

"Nope! I came straight back."

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"You're welcome. I'll go get Tuan now." The spirit started to fade from sight, but before it could fully disappear I grabbed it by the hand.

"Wait!"

An Zhu turned solid again, squirming out of my grip. "I'm supposed to get Tuan now."

"He can wait. Weren't you going to answer some more questions for me?"

"Umm..."

"It'll be quick."

The little spirit twisted in its seat, looking uncomfortable, but it didn't vanish.

Not wanting to lose my chance, I pressed on, picking the most pressing question I'd thought of while waiting for the spirit to return. "Do you know a spirit who's been kidnapping kids? Specifically kids who might be old souls?"

"No, I don't."

"Do you know any spirits who _might_ want to do that?"

An Zhu shook its head. "Only the vines, but not in the way you mean."

I summoned a light again so I could see the spirit better. "What do _you_ mean?"

"Oh, umm..." An Zhu got up, standing on the broken wall and touched my forehead with one finger.

Instantly, my vision swam. I was looking through a yellow filter, watching an amphitheater filled with fiery creatures burn around me as a woman in a fancy dress was pulled into the ground by a black shadow.

I blinked and the vision disappeared.

"Spirits can't do that," An Zhu said.

"What?" I grabbed the back of my head with one hand, taking a step back to get a better look at the spirit that had invaded my brain. "What was that? What did you do?"

"Oh, umm... I'm not so good with words sometimes."

"That was my memory! Did you- Can you- You're a _mind-reader_?" I didn't think such things were possible. Mind-reading was made up, a scary thing invented to create tension and drama in pulp fiction. No one, not Tenzin or Jinora or any of the spiritual experts I'd spoken with had ever mentioned it being a thing spirits could do.

"I, uh... I'm supposed to get Tuan now." And with that, An Zhu, _the portent of things going pear shaped_ , vanished into the night.

I swore and paced for a minute, before gathering enough presence of mind to follow my arrows back the way I'd came, towards the spot where Opal would pick me up. It wasn't until I'd spent ten or so minutes just standing around waiting for her that I realized the importance of what An Zhu had told me. _Spirits couldn't do that_.

 _Couldn't do_ what _?_ _Couldn't take people?_ I knew that wasn't the case. Korra and I had rescued a whole bunch of people who had been taken by the spirit vines, all swallowed up in slimy plant pods.

"Oh." The spirit vines hadn't taken their bodies, just their spirits. This spirit—this _thing—_ that Hyen and I were hunting was taking people whole cloth. Body and soul.

I swore again. An Zhu said the Snatcher wasn't a spirit and I _knew_ it wasn't a human, so what could it possibly be? There was nothing else in existence that could even come close to fitting the bill. So, either An Zhu was wrong, or I needed to re-think everything I thought I knew about the universe.

By the time Opal came to find me, I was pacing again, trying to make myself wake up and think, trying to force a solution out of my tired and violated mind.

"How'd it go?" Opal asked, half whispering as I climbed up the bison's tail and moved to sit behind her on its back.

I just groaned, locking my fingers behind my head, touching my forehead to my knees.

* * *

 _AN: This may be the last update for a little while as I take some time to focus on school & my thesis. But don't worry! I've got the last few chapters all planned out and they will get posted. Eventually._


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